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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Wiggins is self-isolating.
This is Wiggins. She peers through the bars because she thinks that quarantine is like jail. No, she’s not one of ours; her human is our friend Meredith.
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Leonard Cohen; The Doors; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Jimi Hendrix; The Who; and so forth
It seems that everyone in my generation was at Woodstock in 1969. Or so they claim. Except me. I wasn’t there. Apparently 400,000 attendees really were there, although well over a million people say they were there. But that’s not what I’m writing… Read More ›
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Support your local restaurants! (Tavolo and more…)
Your local restaurants need your help! As you know, they operate on small profit margins, and the current prohibition on eat-in dining can destroy many a restaurant. So we’re trying to order take-out and delivery locally whenever possible. Last night… Read More ›
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Seán Mac an tSíthigh tells the story of Boston’s Irish.
How do you pronounce “Seán Mac an tSíthigh”? Don’t ask me. I’ve been attempting to learn something about the Irish language, but the spelling and pronunciation are daunting, as I suggested in a post I wrote a couple of months… Read More ›
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Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother
Picture this: You’re Barry Sonnenfeld, a high-school junior, on a date with a classmate at a Madison Square Garden “Woodstock Reunion” concert. And just as Jimi Hendrix is about to come on, you hear an announcement over the loudspeaker: ”Barry… Read More ›
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Social distancing: a simple geometry problem
I am told that these signs are appearing around San Francisco — thank you, Doug Marquis! — offering either an open-ended or a traditional problem to give your math students. Pick one: What do you notice? How far is the… Read More ›
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William practices social distancing…
… by sitting half on, half off, on his kitty couch. He doesn’t fit if he stretches out.
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Takeout from Tavolo to support social distancing
See the pix. Delicious dinner from Tavolo — at least two days’ worth: mussels (which somehow disappeared before I could photograph them), shrimp scampi, lamb ragout, 4-cheese pizza, flourless chocolate cake!
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The Panda of Death
“Three murders? For a cozy? Isn’t that a lot?” Yes, three murders in one cozy. I guess that’s a lot. This self-referential quote is from Betty Webb’s latest, The Panda of Death. And yes, it’s a cozy, but I read it anyway,… Read More ›
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Contagion
If you haven’t seen it — or even if you have — this is the time to watch Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 movie, Contagion. (Or maybe it’s the time not to watch it, if you worry that it’s going to trigger you.) As you may… Read More ›
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Arabic — its sounds and its writing system — plus some related issues
“They speak Arabic in Iran, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, right?” No, that’s wrong. “OK, what I meant is that they write Farsi, Urdu, and Uyghur in the Arabic script. That’s right, isn’t it?” That’s closer, but still not right. We need… Read More ›
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Tavolo again
Another take-out dinner from Tavolo last night, to aid our neighborhood friends in this time of social distancing: meatball appetizer, chitarra carbonara, chicken parm. All was delicious; we helped ourselves as we helped our friends!
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Keeping the Faith: Is it a Jewish film?
A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar on St. Patrick’s Day…. Yes, it sounds like the beginning of too many jokes. But in this case it’s the opening scene of a movie, Keeping the Faith. As a romcom, it’s not… Read More ›
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Zia Gianna
Take-out lasagna portions from Zia Gianna last night: one slice of meat sauce with peas, one with spinach, gooey cheese with both of course. Warning: these are not only delicious but also huge! Barbara and I together ate less than… Read More ›
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No social distancing?
Apparently they don’t understand about social distancing.
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Which non-Anglophone countries speak English most fluently?
I’ve known lots of non-native speakers of English who speak English fluently. Some of these are friends of mine, some are friends of my family, some were my classmates, some are my students. But is there any pattern to the… Read More ›
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A Very Stable Genius
As you know, the U.S. is currently being led by “a very stable genius,” as our dear leader calls himself. I finally finished reading A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America, written by two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters from… Read More ›
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Unorthodox Quarantine Bonus
I was trying to avoid writing anything about the novel coronavirus or COVID-19, because that’s of course what everyone is talking about. But, sitting here in self-semiquarantine, I have just listened to a special 16-minute bonus episode of the Unorthodox… Read More ›
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Don’t Believe a Word!
Do you want to get a serious look at linguistics from an author who writes clearly for a general audience? If so, read David Shariatmadari’s Don’t Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth about Language. When I say it’s for a general audience, you… Read More ›
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Which states have you visited?
I’m not quite sure why this has been going around the Internet, but people are understandably reluctant to travel right now, so maybe it’s a good time for a visual representation of where you’ve been (USA only, unfortunately). Link is… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 