Author Archives

In 2018 I retired from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. Although I’ve retired from Weston, I haven’t retired from teaching: I still teach at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer (this coming one will be the 18th!), and I supervise a student teacher through Simmons. For 21 years I 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 excessive number of cats.

Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com

• 7+2=10

  By ljd42 on January 16, 2007

  I just came across this clipping I had saved from the Boston Globe some years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t know the date, and it’s not really worth the trouble researching it. It quotes Joe Cazazza. who has finally retired from… Read More ›

• A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

  By ljd42 on January 4, 2007

  Too often the books I review are mysteries (or novels in related genres, such as psychological thrillers). But not this time (and not next time either). Today we’re talking about a straight, mainstream novel — more or less. As you… Read More ›

• Hey, Verizon, $.02 does not equal .02¢

  By ljd42 on January 3, 2007

  You have to listen to this actual mind-boggling conversation between a Verizon Customer Service manager and a Verizon customer. Here is the first astonishing excerpt: Customer: Do you recognize that there’s a difference between point zero zero two dollars and… Read More ›

• “Don’t think about thinking, it’s not on the test”

  By ljd42 on January 1, 2007

  On NPR’s Morning Edition today there was a story about education and standardized testing, which included a debut performance of “Not on the Test” — a “gentle lullaby for students across the country” by Tom Chapin and John Forster. Do… Read More ›

• New Year's Eve at the Ashmont Grill and High Fidelity

  By ljd42 on December 31, 2006

  To celebrate the New Year, Barbara and I just had dinner at the Ashmont Grill, which offered a special menu for New Year’s Eve. Although we hadn’t really intended this to be a “going out in public” experience — like… Read More ›

• Somebody Else's Music

  By ljd42 on December 29, 2006

  I just finished reading Somebody Else’s Music, by Jane Haddam. One of the best in her Gregor Demarkian series, it is distinctly darker than its predecessors. Most interesting to a high-school teacher is its theme of high school as real… Read More ›

• An obligation to vote?

  By ljd42 on December 28, 2006

  Everyone knows about the 2004 decision of the Massachusetts supreme court legalizing gay marriage, and everyone knows that laws banning gay marriage have been passed in many states and are in the pipeline in others, but out-of-staters may not be… Read More ›

• Elmira 2006

  By ljd42 on December 27, 2006

  This year’s trip to Elmira was not nearly as interesting as last year’s.

• Poincaré

  By ljd42 on December 26, 2006

  On NPR’s All Things Considered tonight, there was actually a report about a math problem! To quote science correspondent David Kestenbaum’s report on the Poincaré Conjecture: The journal Science’s “breakthrough of the year” for 2006 is the solution of a… Read More ›

• The Lincoln Lawyer

  By ljd42 on December 24, 2006

  Recently I read The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly, on the strength of an enthusiastic review in the Boston Globe last year. I was not disappointed. Maybe the Globe review explained the title, but if so I didn’t remember. Is… Read More ›