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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Abby wants more admirers.
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“I am a Jewish man.” —Daniel Cainer
As I was thinking about these matters yesterday (for obvious reasons), this popped up in my YouTube feed. Who knows why the algorithm chose it for me. In any case, even though I was never a bar mitzvah — or… Read More ›
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No Trump. No Kings.
Be sure to turn on closed captioning for this one, so you can see the parts that you can’t hear: https://youtu.be/_2KOMWr0qNA
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Very sad news
My sister, Ellen Davidson, died unexpectedly in her sleep Wednesday morning at age 77. No information yet about cause of death, although she did have Parkinson’s, so that may be it. If you knew her, you realize that she was… Read More ›
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Triple threat: Carl Sagan, critical thinking, and an exam
Carl Sagan. A blast from the past, you’re going to tell me! But not really. As several commenters have pointed out after watching the video linked below, he’s more relevant than ever at this point. So go watch it yourself… Read More ›
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Dumpling Kitchen
Yum! Barbara and I enjoyed a truly delicious dinner yesterday evening from Dumpling Kitchen in Mattapan, a new-to-us Chinese restaurant. We started with three flavorful appetizers: har gow, Peking ravioli, and scallion pancakes. Each was better than the next, and… Read More ›
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The Last One
Don’t read this novel if you are susceptible to nightmares! Amazon calls Will Dean’s The Last One “an unputdownable locked-room thriller,” which is true as far as it goes. I would like to tell you more, but I don’t know… Read More ›
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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 ›
Learning Strategies 