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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Mathematics Galore!
The aims of a mathematics masterclass and of this book are to enthuse educate inspire challenge audiences of young people, their parents and teachers, with the wonder, excitement, power, beauty, and relevance of modern mathematical ideas. So it says in… Read More ›
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Listen and vote!
“The Day Democracy Died”: vote for whichever candidate the Democrats nominate! But first listen to this song. (Thanks for the link, David Schwartz!)
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A very intensive language course
In my 1/30/2018 review of Our War I mentioned that one of the few war novels that I’ve read was Im Westen Nichts Neues, which I guess is translated as All Quiet on the Western Front in English, though I remember it in… Read More ›
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How does the Washington Post know what you’re going to read and at what age you’ll read it?
Interesting post by one of my favorite novelists, Lev Raphael: “The Washington Post Claims To Know What You Read And When.” In case you decide not to read either Raphael’s post or the Washington Post column he describes, here is… Read More ›
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Iowa and Ireland: election math
What happened in Iowa? Well, we don’t really know for sure how Mayor Pete managed to astonish everyone, but that’s not what I’m writing about here. And what does it have to do with Ireland anyway? The issue is one… Read More ›
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The sister of English
No, not Paul English or Todd English — I mean the sister of English, as in the English language. Languages, like people, have family trees. If you’re French, you might be able to trace your family tree back to an ancient Roman… Read More ›
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Which American dialect do you speak?
You and I don’t speak exactly the same version of American English. Our vocabulary, pronunciation, and maybe even syntax will vary, depending on geography (producing different dialects), socio-economic class (sociolects), and individual characteristics (idiolects). Many Americans are skilled at identifying… Read More ›
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Map workshop at the BPL
Interactive historical local maps! Interactive historical local maps! Yesterday I attended a fascinating workshop at the Boston Public Library (JP branch), where we explored their new home-brewed web-based software for dynamically viewing historical changes in local maps and used it to… Read More ›
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We need a respite from xenophobia.
Our xenophobic president is about to be acquitted of the high crimes and misdemeanors that he committed. His “alleged” actions have been proved, even according to Mitch McConnell’s good friend Senator Lamar Alexander (R, TN), who voted against additional witnesses… Read More ›
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“There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen, Louise Penny, and Michael Connelly have nothing to do with each other. Nothing obvious, at any rate. But there’s an important connection that all these artists share, embodied by the quotation in the title to this post, which… Read More ›
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Our War
This novel is strictly fictional. It’s just fiction, I tell you. It’s purely coincidental that Craig DiLouie’s Our War is about a Republican president who is impeached by the House, and then is convicted by the Senate (!), and then… wait for it…… Read More ›
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What is the most popular surname in your country of origin?
Thanks to Lisetta Shah, my former colleague and former student, for this link to maps and explanations of the most popular last name in every country. Check it out! Some of it will come as a surprise to you, some of… Read More ›
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The huge Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show
This year’s Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show was different from previous years’ — not because the exhibits were significantly different (they weren’t) nor because it was held in West Springfield rather than Amherst (that’s been true for years). It… Read More ›
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To be in Irish and Spanish
Or should that title be ‘“To be” in Irish and Spanish‘? The issue is just use versus mention, you know. (If you don’t know, check out this Wikipedia entry.) Let’s start with Spanish, since I am guessing that most —… Read More ›
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“Angry white guy unloads on new city councilor in voice mail”
As posted by Adam Gaffin: My new city councilor, Julia Mejia (whom I wrote about on December 11 because she won by a single vote) received an angry voicemail message from a Trump supporter and gave a masterful response in… Read More ›
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Library Shelfie Day!
This is an addendum to this morning’s post. I wish I had known at the time that today is Library Shelfie Day! Read the article in the second link, but note that it includes several inappropriate ways to organize your… Read More ›
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Which books are checked out from libraries most often? Can you guess?
Forget the best-sellers lists. I don’t want to know what’s popular — I want to know what’s happening in libraries, the center of American culture. For its 125th anniversary the New York Public Library has calculated its most checked-out books of… Read More ›
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Why do so many girls and women leave STEM?
No, I’m not going to mansplain the situation. I just want to draw your attention to a pair of essays about it, one by Karen Morenz, embedded within another by Scott Aaronson. My expectation is that nobody will disagree with… Read More ›
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Purple and green
A present my sister Ellen made for Barbara and me: These four beautiful handcrafted quilted pot-holders in purple and green, to match the colors of the walls of our kitchen:
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Against My Better Judgment: An Intimate Memoir of an Eminent Gay Psychologist
Would this headline be clickbait? “Eminent Harvard Psychologist Admits That He’s Gay!” Ho hum, it wouldn’t work as clickbait today. Nobody today would be shocked (except perhaps by the choice of verb in this made-up headline). But back in the… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 