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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A Scourge of Vipers
My one-word review is “meh.” Bruce DeSilva’s A Scourge of Vipers is not a bad mystery. (There’s litotes for you. You can look it up, as I think I said in my last post in a different context, though still… Read More ›
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Morning glories on a glorious morning
Chiasmus here. (You can look it up.)
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Truly these are oldies but goodies — songs from… wait for it… two millennia ago!
Back in the ancient world, when I was in high school, a friend and classmate of mine was named Dwight Wayne Batteau, better known (then and now) as Robin Batteau. For quite a while now he has been half of… Read More ›
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Dead in the Frame
Sooner or later, in the lives of all private investigators, they always get arrested for a murder they didn’t commit. At least the fictional ones do. It’s apparently a requirement of the genre. And sure enough it happened to Lillian… Read More ›
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Quick! Живојиновић and more
What is that strange word in Cyrillic letters in the title? At first glance it looks like Russian… but then the letters ј and ћ show that it isn’t Russian. Hmmm… Be patient now; you’ll find out soon what’s up…. Read More ›
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An Enemy in the Village
Clearly this is another familiar, comforting Bruno-Chief-of-Police novel by Martin Walker. What’s not so clear is what the title, An Enemy in the Village, refers to. My initial guess, based on previous novels in the Bruno series, was that the… Read More ›
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The kittens (a follow-up to my 8/31 post)
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Measles and polio down in the schoolyard
The Brits know the danger of RFK Jr, so why don’t Americans? Click on the image to hear what the Marsh family says — or rather sings. (If you aren’t old enough to recognize the song they’re parodying, go back… Read More ›
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100 places to see after you die: A travel guide to the afterlife
That’s a strange title, isn’t it? And the subtitle is almost as strange. But this book by Ken Jennings — yes, that Ken Jennings — is perfectly normal if you’re looking for some Jeopardy fodder concerning the afterlife according to… Read More ›
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Barnaby & Cassandra convincing you…
Barnaby & Cassandra in the process of convincing you that they are indeed a bonded pair of Russian Blue cats:
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Is Superman circumcised?
That question does sound like clickbait — but it’s not. In fact, the book titled Is Superman circumcised? is surprisingly rather academic and serious. Author Roy Schwartz explores the history and sociology of the Superman character with an emphasis on… Read More ›
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The Photographer
Unlike most of the books I review, The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter is not genre fiction of any kind. Not exactly a mystery, not quite a thriller, this is a mainstream story that has the vibe of a thriller… Read More ›
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“Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair”
This 1983 story by Frederik Pohl was clearly influenced by Shirley Jackson’s famous story “The Lottery,” which had been published 35 years earlier. Probably some good high-school English papers were written in the ’80s comparing and contrasting the two stories…. Read More ›
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A former student’s PhD defense
The highlight of my week was a talk at MIT yesterday by a former Weston student of mine, Akiva Gordon. You may think that I must not get out much if a lecture at MIT was the highlight of my… Read More ›
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Barnaby has discovered the kitty couch.
And apparently it’s even better than the box!
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Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell
Even though it’s a Sherlock Holmes tale, this book was not written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (You can see that in the cover image below.) Nor was it written in the 19th Century, as the cover contains a color… Read More ›
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They say that Welsh is impossible to pronounce — but is that really true?
Admittedly, Welsh does look impossible to pronounce, at least for Americans. But that’s mostly because of the frightening spelling, with words like ffrwyth, cynysgaeddir, and ymddwyn. (And don’t forget, of course, the famous town in Wales, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. That name is… Read More ›
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Petard
Is this really what MIT is like? Or, rather, what it will be like in ten years or so? I’m talking about Cory Doctorow’s science fiction story, “Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts.” Perhaps, like the author of an otherwise… Read More ›
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Concordia Language Villages
If only these language villages had existed when I was a teen! Actually, a few of them already existed — but unfortunately I hadn’t heard about them at the time. Such is life. Where, you ask, are they located? Well,… Read More ›
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“To tell you the truth… everybody lies.”
Says who? Well, the quotations above consists of the title plus subtitle of a new novel by Gilly Macmillan, all squished into one short sentence. This novel is supposedly “an unsettling and atmospheric thriller that’s almost impossible to put down,”… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 