Author Archives

I am entering my 21st year as a math teacher at Weston High School, the sole public high school in Weston, MA. It’s also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In addition to my day job, I taught for 20 years at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA. I also teach at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer; 2017 was our 14th consecutive summer.

Sometimes I work on educational software. I also read, cook, and continue building my model railroad whenever I can. For some reason I'm left with less so-called free time than would be ideal. Nevertheless, I manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our excessive number of cats as well.

• The bathroom is finally finished!

  By ljd42 on October 19, 2019

  

  It took nine weeks. First the workmen demolished everything, down to the studs. Then they built a complete new bathroom in the same space. Some fixtures from Kohler and Home Despot, but primarily from our local Norfolk Hardware and Home Center. (Shout-out… Read More ›

• Intertwingled/“Hypertext in the Age of Trump”

  By ljd42 on October 18, 2019

  

  Hypertext pioneer Mark Bernstein has just published Intertwingled, a collection of nine essays and one short story. No one could ever say that Bernstein is shy about expressing his opinions, so don’t expect some dry attempt at scientific “neutrality.” If you… Read More ›

• Graphing calculator prices: how TI cornered the market

  By ljd42 on October 16, 2019

  

  You’re a student. Why are you required to buy a Texas Instruments calculator? Why not something cheaper and better? Usually what you’re buying is a TI-84, a 15-year-old piece of expensive technology. Zachary Crockett explains how we got into this… Read More ›

• 224 Boston Street

  By ljd42 on October 15, 2019

  

  As I wrote on 12/12/2015 and 10/31/2010, Dorchester used to have a scarcity of good restaurants, but now there are a lot: Twenty-five years ago you could count the number of good restaurants in Dorchester  on the fingers of one… Read More ›

• Blue, green, and grue

  By ljd42 on October 14, 2019

  

  Color names are a mystery. At least to me. Take a look at the color chips in the image. If we limit ourselves to common English color names (excluding, that is, the myriad of names used by both types of… Read More ›

• Mollie and Vincent

  By ljd42 on October 12, 2019

  

  Mollie likes to sleep with one eye open, just in case. But she curls up with her brother Vincent, who will always  protect her.

• Trump’s language — and Obama’s

  By ljd42 on October 11, 2019

  

  What do you think about Donald Trump’s use of language? A lot of people criticize it. On the other side there were even people who criticized Obama’s language, so where does the truth lie? Frances Brown, who worked for the… Read More ›

• Comic Sans is back in the news.

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2019

  Oh nos, Comic Sans is back in the news! Three times in the past 20 years I’ve felt compelled to write about the Comic Sans font: in 2005, 2009, and 2016. And here we go again: Of all the things… Read More ›

• Linguistics in MetroWest

  By ljd42 on October 8, 2019

  

  For many years I inserted linguistic lagniappes into my honors geometry classes at Weston — typically for 15–20 minutes, twice a month. You may wonder what the connection between linguistics and geometry might be — but if you view honors geometry as… Read More ›

• “America’s math curriculum doesn’t add up,” observes Steve Levitt.

  By ljd42 on October 7, 2019

  Please listen to (or read) this week’s Freakonomics podcast. I will wait. No, actually, I’m going to discuss it without making any prior assumptions that you have listened to it or read it: If you’ve been reading this blog for… Read More ›