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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The 99% Invisible City
“Always read the plaque.” This is getting out of control. I now have 13 books on my list of Top Ten Favorite Books! The 99% Invisible City is now the thirteenth. Something has to be done. And why, you ask, are there 13 books… Read More ›
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Gym Jordan, grammar expert
Leading Republican congressman Jim Jordan is well-known as an expert on “pronouns“:
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A number theory discovery by a 12-year-old Nigerian boy! And one by an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl!
Everyone knows the stereotype: mathematical discoveries are made by white and Asian males in their 20s and 30s. Right? Well, like all stereotypes, there’s a certain amount of statistical reality that supports this impression and obscures all examples to the… Read More ›
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What’s wrong with being named Quartus anyway?
So you’ve never heard of the name Quartus? I’m not surprised. Almost no one, after all, is named Quartus. But why not? Peter Gainsford answers the question—and other questions as well, most of which you didn’t even know you had…. Read More ›
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The road to hell
Suppose you did something wrong—unintentionally. Does your lack of ill intent mitigate the offense? The issue arose recently in a slightly heated conversation with a good friend of mine. I was upset with her because she had inadvertently done something… Read More ›
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Tavolo
Barbara and I had a yummy take-out dinner last night from Tavolo via curbside pickup: meatballs, polenta with mushroom, shrimp scampi with fettuccine, chitara amatriciana, and flourless chocolate cake. Plenty of leftovers! I am pretending that it was all low-calorie… Read More ›
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Another sign in Dot
Spotted on today’s walk in Dorchester, at the corner of Neponset Ave and South Monroe Terrace:
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Dorchester loves Georgia.
Spotted on Carruth Street during yesterday’s walk:
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That’s Life. “Uncertainty is the only certainty.”
This is life: In a world where truth seems to be at a premium and the future unsure, it’s comforting to know precisely when the sun is going to come up and that when it does, it will do so… Read More ›
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The (apparently) oxymoronic Anthology of Cozy-Noir
Cozy-noir? Cozy and noir? Hmmm… certainly sounds like an oxymoronic pair of mystery sub-genres! But maybe editor Andrew MacRae has something up his sleeve. Has he managed to combine the two into a seamless whole? It was an intriguing enough… Read More ›
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“Why haven’t I ever been to Petra?”
That’s what I kept asking myself as I was watching the PBS Nova episode Petra, Lost City of Stone, which I somehow missed when it first aired six years ago. This amazing archaeological site in Jordan competes in quality with… Read More ›
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Should the passive voice be avoided? And what’s wrong with Strunk? And what about White, while we’re at it?
The bill was signed by the president. The bill remained on the president’s desk for five days. Mistakes were made. All three of those sentences are in the passive voice, right? Actually, wrong. Only the first and third are. So… Read More ›
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A belated New Years Eve feast from Ashmont Grill
Yes, it was three days late, but it was worth the wait! Barbara and I ordered a huge take-out feast from our favorite restaurant, the Ashmont Grill. It will take us another three days to eat it all. The four… Read More ›
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How many of you are there?
“There’s only one of me!” you protest. But that’s not what I mean. Co-host of the Unorthodox podcast Mark Oppenheimer discovered (unsurprisingly) that there are others who share his name, and that got me wondering: How many Larry Davidsons are… Read More ›
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Harvard, Homosexuality, and the Shaping of American Culture
The title of this post is actually only the subtitle of the book, as you can see in the image of the cover. But “Harvard, Homosexuality, and the Shaping of American Culture” is more specific than the book’s main title,… Read More ›
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Ring the bells that still can ring: the right song for today (Anthem).
Yes, Leonard Cohen wrote this back in 1992, and performed it in 2008 — but it’s the song we need today as we close out 2020.
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Amazon’s user reviews: Can you trust them? Will ReviewMeta help?
I am awed by the author’s skills in writing this gripping first novel that takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of all the top museums in Europe. How seriously do you take a review that starts like that? Do… Read More ›
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The Murder List
Barbara says I’m supposed to have heard of Hank Phillippi Ryan. Apparently she’s well-known as both a mystery writer and an investigative reporter on Boston television. Although I hadn’t heard of her before, I went ahead and read (actually “listened to”… Read More ›
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Why are you still here?
A positive — dare I say uplifting? — story about Zoom learning as we close out annus horribilis 2020! From Patrick Honner: It was the last day of school in 2020 and my students were in breakout rooms finishing up a… Read More ›
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Does every language have an alphabet? What about abjads and abugidas — not to mention syllabaries?
Is there such a thing as the Hebrew alphabet? How about the Japanese alphabet? Or the Hindi? “Of course,” you reply. “At least I know there’s a Hebrew alphabet. It has letters like מ, which means ‘m,’ and it’s written… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 