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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Masks
Barbara and I have new masks, hand-made with love by our niece Aviva. (Unfortunately the cats think that they’re cat toys because of the dangly straps.)
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In praise of English teachers
Some English teachers, anyway. Actually, one English teacher in particular: Dudley Fitts. I just read this short essay in Andover Magazine in which an Andover alumnus (who is slightly older than I), Tod Howard Hawks, recalled his first 9th-grade English assignment… Read More ›
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Apart-ment
You will want to read a longish poem just published by my favorite Canadian linguist, James Harbeck. Before then, note what he has to say about words: Words are delicious and intoxicating. They do much more than just denote; they have appearance,… Read More ›
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How does a New Yawker tawk?
How do you combine linguistics, the movies, New York, and politics? Just check out this fascinating article from the New York Times! The article includes several great clips with audio and video from a wide range of New Yorkers. I… Read More ›
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William thinks he’s on TV.
He thinks he’s on TV. He doesn’t realize he’s just sitting in a box from BJs.
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What an indulgence!
What an indulgence: two Dorchester restaurants two days in a row! It’s important to support your local small businesses during the stay-at-home orders, so Barbara and I decided to get takeout from Tavolo last night even though we had gotten… Read More ›
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The Blarney Stone without any blarney
Last night Barbara and I enjoyed another quarantine dinner that couldn’t be beat: takeout from the Blarney Stone, delivered efficiently and promptly by Caviar. Mostly quoting from the menu now, we had “grilled BBQ marinated steak tips, creamy mashed potatoes,… Read More ›
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High-school graduation photo
Everyone seems to be posting their high-school graduation picture on Facebook these days. So, I guess I have to join ’em. Here we are. P.A. 1965:
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DJ’s European Market and Deli
Polish take-out yesterday afternoon from DJ’s European Market and Deli: lunch and partial dinner for Barbara, partial dinner for me. DJ’s is in the Polish Triangle, right on the Dorchester-Southie border. Courtesy of prompt delivery by GrubHub, we ordered stuffed cabbage… Read More ›
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Maxine Unleashes Doomsday
How could I resist a novel with a title like Maxine Unleashes Doomsday? The genre of this story, as you expect, is near-future post-apocalyptic science fiction — more or less. Apparently it was inspired by The Road Warrior, but I’ve never seen… Read More ›
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Math and cats
(This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post. I suggest reading it first, if you haven’t done so already.) A quote from John Horton Conway in today’s MathBlab: You know, people think mathematics is complicated. Mathematics is the simple bit. It’s… Read More ›
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RIP, John Horton Conway
Very sad news. John Horton Conway, one of the greatest math educators of our generation, has died of COVID-19: John Conway leaves a legacy of the most awe-inspiring mathematical and magical mind-twisters—the Monster group and monstrous moonshine, surreal numbers, Sprouts,… Read More ›
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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!
Learning Strategies 