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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Automated translation? What could possibly go wrong?
It was 1968. Fully automated translation was just around the corner. Or so I learned in a computer science class. Of course there was officially no such discipline at the time, so it was actually an applied math class, but… Read More ›
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One of Our Own
Was Gregor Demarkian really the “Armenian-American Hercule Poirot”? That’s what the popular press called him. Jane Haddam presents his last case in One of Our Own, the final and 30th novel in her insufficiently famous Demarkian series. She finished writing it shortly… Read More ›
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How do you spell царь in English? Czar, tsar, csar, or tzar?
Take a word that’s written in one alphabet (Cyrillic, say). Now spell it in another alphabet (Roman, say). Why? Well, Russian is written in Cyrillic, but it’s often necessary to write Russian words in English, using the familiar Roman alphabet…. Read More ›
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A Whiff of Death, by Isaac Asimov
Another academic mystery, this time by Isaac Asimov. Yes, Asimov was a prolific writer of science fiction and science fact, but he also wrote mysteries — mostly related to science fiction and science fact. A Whiff of Death was one of those… Read More ›
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English is weird.
No, I’m not talking about the notorious difficulties of English spelling. Nor am I talking about the oddities of English idioms and compound words, such as the all-too-well-known “Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?”… Read More ›
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I know it’s hard to believe, but you too can use a simple formula to generate all the prime numbers!
You probably thought that there is no such formula — one that will generate all and only the prime numbers (formula, not sieve). Right? Well, it turns out that there is! (More or less.) Keep reading… Just start with the… Read More ›
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Linguists
Mouse-over text: “Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you’re currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out.”
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Happy Thanksgiving: celebrating the day Americans fed undocumented aliens from Europe
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Tavolo!
Barbara and I had yummy take-out yesterday from Tavolo (at least two dinners’ worth for the two of us): pan seared duck breast with smashed 12 moon farm pumpkin, grilled asparagus, cinnamon, vincoto; house meatballs with marinara and parmesan; shrimp… Read More ›
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A number of galactic proportions
Take, say, 73 little cubes (blocks or ordinary D6 dice). Could you arrange them into three perfect cubes? I’ll wait while you try to solve this problem… OK, you probably started by taking 64 of them to make a 4×4×4… Read More ›
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Ivy is a Weed
Any good academic mystery is always a treat. Robert M. Roseth’s Ivy is a Weed is a good academic mystery. The story takes place at a thinly disguised University of Washington, Seattle campus. For the most part it’s a spot-on satire of bureaucratic… Read More ›
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Sorry, but we’re just not going to be able to get rid of the Electoral College.
Finally the American people have woken up and understand the Electoral College (EC), or at least its importance. Well, at least somewhat. My Quantitative Reasoning (QR) students at the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA) certainly understand it: how many electors each… Read More ›
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Pronounce bruschetta, schism, and schedule. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
No, the “sch” in bruschetta is not pronounced like the English “sh”! It’s pronounced like the English “sk.” Bruschetta is an Italian word, not a German word, so don’t pronounce it as in Schadenfreude, to quote James Harbeck in the link below. Actually, the issue is slightly more… Read More ›
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My ethnicity puzzle. Any ideas?
Can you help me solve my ethnicity puzzle? You might have some ideas, especially if you yourself have Ashkenazi heritage. Ancestry sent me this information about my paternal grandfather (from the 1910 Federal census). Does everything look right to you?… Read More ›
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Is this the life of a typical college freshman during the pandemic?
Even without actually doing anything, I’m exhausted just from watching this four-minute video! This is definitely not the life of a typical college freshman as portrayed in the media. So the question remains: how many freshmen — excuse me, “first-years” — are… Read More ›
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Grey elections
Who cares about the mathematics of elections? We all should, of course — especially now. An informative, even entertaining way to learn about this topic is to watch the videos of CGP Grey. For a scary example, take a look… Read More ›
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A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen
What did Alex Trebek and Leonard Cohen have in common? “Both were Canadians,” you reply. “Both were beloved by huge audiences,” you add. Yes, of course. And both get the title of Rabbi, according to Mark Oppenheimer, cohost of the… Read More ›
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What I’ve learned in the past hour
I just learned (a bit) about the Zettelkasten Method! You probably already know about it, but I had never heard of it. Basically it’s hypertext without needing computers — just notecards and paperclips, though software is certainly allowed. In an… Read More ›
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Not possible! What are emojis doing in 1807?
How much of this advertisement (from 1807!) can you figure out? Note that it says “hieroglyphical” where we would have said “rebus” when I was a kid or “emojis” today. You’ll probably do much better at reading it than I… Read More ›
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How have I forgotten this number system?
That’s easy. I couldn’t have forgotten it, as I had never known about it in the first place! We’re talking about the Cistercian number system. Sounds monkish, doesn’t it? Yes, that’s what it is; it was developed by Cistercian monks… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 