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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William is so handsome…
On his blue comforter, even if for some reason it has a lot of cat fur on it:
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Being human in the age of algorithms
That’s not the title. It’s actually the subtitle. The book’s title is Hello World. OK, so now that you know the title, you want to know who the author is—right? Well, the author is applied mathematician Hannah Fry, whom I… Read More ›
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Ayliean (who?)—and her Hitomezashi patterns (what?)
No, I don’t know how to pronounce Ayliean. My Scots Gaelic isn’t what it used to be. (It never was.) And I’m not so sure about Hitomezashi either, as my Japanese isn’t what it used to be. (But I did… Read More ›
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Christine Lavin, Tina Ross, and Barbara Barrie
Great short Zoom concert/interview last night by Christine Lavin, hosted by Tina Ross! Not sure whether it’s still available after the fact. In any case, you can check out her other concerts and recordings here. But I do need to… Read More ›
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If ontogeny really recapitulated phylogeny…
If you need the full explanation, visit explainXKCD.
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Another treat from Richard Osman
A couple of months ago I reviewed the first novel in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. Now I turn to the second, which I have just finished reading. This mystery, The Man Who Died Twice, is at least as… Read More ›
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Stress is good. That’s why Shakespeare could never have been French. (Say what? Read on for an explanation.)
No, not that kind of stress! We’re talking about stressing syllables, not your mind. English poetry and prose alike depend heavily on stress—especially poetry. In prose, if you get the stress wrong, your words may be incomprehensible. Or you may… Read More ›
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Tavolo Take-out Treat
Anticipating today’s snowstorm, Barbara and I just had to treat ourselves to a take-out banquet from Tavolo last night. (We blame Tara for it, since she had posted a tempting menu excerpt on FB.) Here’s what we had (pix below):… Read More ›
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Yang’s Yummy Dumplings
Finally, over a period of a month or two, Barbara and I have consumed nearly all of the fifty delicious dumplings that we bought from Yang’s in Dorchester. Don’t worry: they came frozen, and are still frozen. At least the… Read More ›
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Texas German vs. Pennsylvania Dutch
Is there really such a language as Texas German? The answer is yes. So why is it—according to my informal (and totally unscientific) poll—that everyone has heard of Pennsylvania German (usually, however, called by the misnomer Pennsylvania Dutch, where “Dutch”… Read More ›
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NYE@AG
Happy New Year! Barbara and I celebrated New Years Eve at the Ashmont Grill, as one does. We appreciated the fact that it was a quiet and understated affair, as you would expect under the current circumstances. Barbara started with… Read More ›
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Can German speakers understand Yiddish—and vice versa?
Is Yiddish really a language? Or is it a dialect of German? And does anyone speak it anymore? The quick answers are yes, no, and yes, respectively. It used to be a dialect of German—12 centuries ago—but both languages have… Read More ›
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That long-awaited model railroad update: finally a progress report!
As the estimable Barry Popik observes, “A model railroad [is] never finished. There is always something to add or to remove or to modify.” So I can’t simply postpone this report until my model railroad is finished! But “I’ve been… Read More ›
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A Jewish Christmas, in two parts (Part Two: Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas)
After we got home from our requisite Chinese meal on Christmas Day, Barbara and I watched the requisite movie: in this case the Canadian documentary Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas. If you’ve never heard of it, go find it and… Read More ›
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A Jewish Christmas, in two parts (this is Part One: the requisite Chinese meal)
Barbara and I chose to have our traditionally Jewish Chinese Christmas meal this year at Chau Chow, on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. I am delighted to report that it was delicious. Of course there was too much food, so we… Read More ›
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Rudolph in Old English
In recognition of Christmas 2021, here is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the original Old English, a.k.a. Anglo Saxon, from exactly one thousand years ago, courtesy of All Things Linguistic: Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor – Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas! Glitenode and… Read More ›
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Netflix cares about the length of a sentence in a given language. You should too.
Here’s the problem. Netflix shows shows in many different languages. Some languages, like English, allow compact phrases like that “shows shows” (which looks confusing); others use circumlocutions that take up more room on the screen. Why does matter? Because it… Read More ›
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All aboard! MRR at the MoS
Go see the small but magnificent model railroad exhibit, All Aboard!, at the Museum of Science! I just got back from visiting it. This labor of love by the dedicated volunteers of the HUB Division of the National Model Railroad… Read More ›
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Trains, Rock Paper Scissors, & Hannah Fry: What do these three have in common?
How can Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) have a winning strategy? It’s all just luck, isn’ it? Well, no, actually. It’s true that if your opponent plays strictly randomly, then you have no winning strategy. It’s really all just luck. But… Read More ›
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The Bicentennial Man
“One has mixed feelings about the movie” would be my comment if I’m going to speak in Andrew’s style. As usual, I recommend seeing the movie before reading the book. In this case the first version was a long short… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 