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 Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols
The perennial Sherlock Holmes strikes again! Nicholas Meyer, author of the famous The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, follows that up with another Holmes pastiche, this time with much more serious content: debunking the antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion…. Read More ›
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Quidditch in Yiddish, etc
Surely you want to read the Harry Potter books in their new Yiddish translation, don’t you? “But I don’t read Yiddish!” you exclaim. That’s admittedly a handicap. But you can make some progress by sounding out the Hebrew letters (with… Read More ›
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You probably think this song is about ___________________ (who? not you).
Which picture shows Christine Lavin? Anyway, listen to her song about a certain someone:
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Bay State Model Railroad Museum Open House
So you’ve never heard of the Bay State Model Railroad Museum? Well, it exists, even if you haven’t heard of it. It’s very small — but yes, it does exist and seems to be thriving, right in the heart of… Read More ›
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What difference could a few zeroes make? Zero is nothing, isn’t it?
Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million check and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people…. Read More ›
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Which is better, having or wanting?
“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.” — Mr. Spock in “Amok Time.” I’ve recently been watching various recommended episodes… Read More ›
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“Any Dem will do.”
Vote Blue, no matter who! And here is the inestimable Randy Rainbow: In case you don’t know the original for this song, check out how Randy compares to Donny Osmond.
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Dim sum at Chau Chow
During a brief break from her 14-hour stint as an election warden at the polls yesterday, Barbara and I had a delicious dim sum lunch at Chau Chow on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. Since it’s a weekday, there were not… Read More ›
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Words for Granted
Don’t take words for granted. But do take Words for Granted. What can that possibly mean? Words for Granted is a pop-linguistics “podcast about how words change over time,” in their own words. They’re going strong at 83 episodes so… Read More ›
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Tsundoku: The practice of buying more books than you can read
The Japanese have a word for it. According to Melissa Breyer, “tsundoku” describes piling up books to save for later… even if you’ll never actually read them. Thank you, Betsy Miessner, for this link. I don’t speak Japanese (despite a few… Read More ›
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What’s wrong with grammar.com?
Apparently there’s one four-letter word that “does great damage to way too many people.” No, not that word. This one is “like.” So says Edward Good, the developer of grammar.com; check out the excellent (and very short) article on this… Read More ›
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Wrong address?
Somehow I suspect that they sent this to the wrong email address. Should I fill out the form? I do meet three of their criteria, after all.
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Gaslight
Barbara and I had a special dinner last night at Gaslight, a “classic French restaurant in the South End of Boston” in their own words. The first thing to say is that they have free parking in their own parking… Read More ›
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They know how to keep warm…
…even when the furnace isn’t working.
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Can a man write a good novel? Or can only a woman do that?
I only read women. I know that men write books. But their lives are so limited. It’s such a small and narrow experience. That’s what famous author Marian Keyes says (in the Daily Mail of all places). It startles us in… Read More ›
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Gender or gender?
Is sex the same thing as gender? When I was learning a little Latin and less French in middle school, I learned that gender was nothing but a grammatical category, having little or nothing to do with sex. Why should… Read More ›
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Which languages are the most “efficient”? Which are the least?
Perhaps you’ve learned some Latin, or German, or Russian. If so, you probably don’t find those languages very “efficient”: they have too many fussy endings, too many details you have to pay attention to. If, however, you speak Mandarin, that… Read More ›
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Can you say Buttigieg? Can you even say Klobuchar? What makes them so hard to pronounce?
We all try to say Mayor Pete’s name correctly — but most of us fail. That’s partly because we’re told that his neighbors pronounce it “Buddha judge” whereas his campaign insists on “Boot Edge Edge,” according to the New York… Read More ›
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Valentine’s Day Dinner at Tavolo
Barbara and I had an excellent virtual-Valentine’s-Day dinner last night at Tavolo. (Yes, I know it was the “wrong” day: their Valentine’s specials lasted for two days!) We both had the combo of filet mignon, lobster tail, duchess potatoes, asparagus,… Read More ›
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Weston wins! High School Quiz Show: Tantasqua vs. Weston
Congratulations to Weston High School for their impressive performance in the opening salvo of this year’s WGBH High School Quiz Show! Weston beat Tantasqua Regional by the comfortable margin of 555–440, despite the fact that Tantasqua’s team consisted of four… Read More ›
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