Author Archives
In 2018 I semi-retired by retiring from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In 2023 I retired fully, adding in my 18 years at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer. For 21 years I had taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA, and I used to serve on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.
I read, cook, and spend a lot of time building my model railroad. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, considering that I’m supposed to be retired, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our varying number of cats (once up to six, but now sadly down to one).
Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com
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Goodbye, Arthur C. Clarke.
Another of the great ones is gone. Scientist, science fiction writer, and visionary Arthur C. Clarke died the day before yesterday at age 90. He is best known for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, on which the eternally rewatchable… Read More ›
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Eye of the Beholder
I recently listened to the audiobook of Eye of the Beholder, by David Ellis. This work is a hybrid of two genres: the thriller and the police procedural. It’s definitely a page-turner — well, I can’t use that metaphor for… Read More ›
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Countless
I guess Kalmbach didn’t have 100 fingers:
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Don’t procrastinate! Goodbye, George, I hardly knew you.
Actually, I never knew you, sad to say. For 15 years now I have been intending to meet George Sanborn and talk with him about the MBTA (since my model railroad layout is based loosely on the MBTA of 1969)…. Read More ›
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South Shore Model Railway Club
This morning I went to the Spring Open House of the South Shore Model Railroad Club in Hingham, MA. Despite the excessive number of young children present, it was an excellent layout, with a reasonable but small quantity of vendors… Read More ›
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Fractions
That’s fractions, not fractals. (There is, actually, a significant and non-coincidental connection between the words, but that would be something of a digression.) I’m noticing two recent and diametrically opposed views on fractions — views that I want to discuss… Read More ›
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Happy Pi Day!
Pi Day at Weston was uneventful, except that one of my students brought in a virtual pie. Actually it was a chocolate cake, but at least it was round. And she had intended to write some of the digits of… Read More ›
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JP Seafood
Last night Barbara and I ate at JP Seafood, one of our favorite restaurants for times when she works late in Jamaica Plain. (You’ll note that I’ve included the Dorchester label for this post, even though Jamaica Plain is not… Read More ›
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Preparing for Pi Day
To get ready for Pi Day, which of course comes the day after tomorrow, you should get yourself a Pi Plate, watch the music video of the first half of Mathematical Pi, and listen to the audio version of the… Read More ›
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As Dog is My Witness
I seem to be inadvertently continuing my Asperger’s theme here. As Dog is My Witness, by Jeffrey Cohen, is a mystery that features a couple of boys with Asperger’s; one is the innocent suspect, the other the informal detective. You… Read More ›
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The Second Mouse
The Second Mouse is a wonderful addition to Archer Mayor’s series of Vermont mysteries, which are always a pleasure to read because Mayor is so skilled at drawing verbal pictures of both the characters and the locales. As a reader,… Read More ›
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Maple
Yesterday afternoon we had a half-day workshop on Maple, a computer algebra system. At least that’s how we think of it, but here’s the description on their website: Maple is the leading all purpose mathematics software tool. Maple provides an… Read More ›
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Teaching boys and girls separately — and differently?
There’s a fascinating pair of intertwined articles this week, one in the New York Times Magazine and one in Language Log. The Times article is the cover piece for the issue: “Teaching Boys and Girls Separately,” by Elizabeth Weil; the… Read More ›
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An Obama/Seeger serendipity
Wow! I don’t often call a PBS show inspiring, but last night I watched the truly inspiring American Masters episode, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, which had aired on my birthday and TiVo had kindly saved for me. I… Read More ›
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Fractals are fractious
(Thanks to Barbara for the title of this post.) Let me begin by setting the stage. On Friday I wrote about this year’s Fractal Fair. Groups of students (generally three in each group, occasionally two; generally juniors, but there were… Read More ›
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Listen to the kids? Or listen to the adults?
In Universal Hub this morning, Adam Gaffin quotes Cara Lisa Powers on the subject of the Boston Globe’s coverage of a protest at the John D. O’Bryant High School of Mathematics and Science. The Globe ignored the kids. In this… Read More ›
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"Boys and girls,…" What's wrong with that?
One of my colleagues objects when a teacher addresses a group of students as “Boys and girls,…” No, it’s not that she would prefer it if we said “Girls and boys,…”; that’s not the issue, though of course one should… Read More ›
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The Sixth Annual Fractal Fair
You’re familiar with the fact that high-school students often display their creativity in the fields of art, music, and theatre, and everyone has heard of science fairs, but similar opportunities in mathematics are all too rare. Today we held the… Read More ›
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My 10 favorite books
That’s 10, not ten — because there are twelve, which is still 10. Confused? Just pick the right base, of course. So I guess they’re still my 10 favorite books. Anyway, if you look at my profile (the link is… Read More ›
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Thinking again about Obama/Bloomberg
A month ago I wondered why nobody was talking about the possibility that Barack Obama would pick Michael Bloomberg as his running mate. It wasn’t that I was seriously supporting such a ticket at the time; it just seemed to… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 