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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“Untranslatable” words (redux)
Six months ago I wrote an essay in my blog about “untranslatable” words. If you haven’t read it, you may want to do so now. The bottom line was that when someone claims that a word in some language is… Read More ›
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There’s no such thing as too many books.
More shelf space may not be an option. More shelf space requires more shelving, which in turn requires more bookcases, which in turn require more room. Sigh. I gave a few hundred away just over a year ago, but that… Read More ›
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It’s 50 years later; would I still be able to write something like my master’s thesis?
I can still teach linguistics — but could I still write a linguistics thesis? On April 10, 1969, I submitted my master’s thesis, The Development of Embeddings in the Speech of Young Children. Just now, for a somewhat complicated set of… Read More ›
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Russian Script Hacking for Beginners
Is it Korsunsky or Korsunskiy or Korsunski or perhaps even Korsunskyi? Would it help to see it written out in Cyrillic rather than in our Roman alphabet? Related question: what’s the capital of Ukraine — Kiev or Kyiv? Actually, it’s… Read More ›
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Every vote counts!
How do elections work? Does your vote really count? Could your single vote really make a difference? See below. But first… Regular readers of this blog know that I teach a course every summer to rising tenth-graders where one unit is… Read More ›
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A negative decrease?
Hmm… so I guess that means that my score increased?
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Coffee shops with books: A personal connection
As you know, many coffee shops and small restaurants want their customers to feel at home, so they have comfortable chairs and shelves with random books on them. The intent, I suppose, is to create an ambiance like a living… Read More ›
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Semicolon
“What!? An entire book about semicolons??? You’ve got to be kidding!” “And an audiobook of all things???? How can you listen to a semicolon?” Yes, I have to admit: I really did listen to an audiobook about a punctuation mark…. Read More ›
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Language Unlimited: “Syntax is where the magic happens.”
“Syntax is where the magic happens. It takes the words we use to slice up our reality, and puts them together in infinitely varied ways.” — from Language Unlimited, by David Adger. If I had to pick one paragraph as the thesis statement… Read More ›
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The apostrophe? Its no longer needed.
Ive written earlier about apostrophes, but now we have the definitive essay on the subject for all the peevers and prescriptivists out there: “Thats all Folks: The Apostrophe Protection Society Gone for Good” by the distinguished Dennis Baron. Read it… Read More ›
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Murder on the Toy Town Express
Toy Town is East Aurora, NY. Although you probably already knew that, I didn’t know it until I read Barbara Early’s Murder on the Toy Town Express. Don’t confuse this novel with the famous murder on that other express. You can tell… Read More ›
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“40 Ambitious Ideas to Save Transportation in Boston” plus an MBTA view from 1947
OK. We know that Boston traffic is a mess. We also know that large swaths of people are unwilling to take the T for a variety of reasons, many of which reflect legitimate frustrations. So here we have a number… Read More ›
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Mollie, Vincent, and… William
Mollie loves her black-and-white brother Vincent. She’s not so sure about her orange brother William:
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Election Math: A British approach from Plus Magazine
As you know, Hillary Clinton received more votes than Donald Trump in 2016, which is why she is president today. What? You say that isn’t true? But she really did get more votes — and we live in a democracy,… Read More ›
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To Say Nothing of the Dog and Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)
Two books — each called (in part) To Say Nothing of the Dog. Is this a coincidence? Actually, no. Let’s look at each title in turn: The first of these, which has the full title of To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or… Read More ›
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Greenberg Model Railroad Show
There were some interesting items at this weekend’s Greenberg Model Railroad Show in Wilmington… But ultimately it was disappointing. The big problem was the ratio of layouts to vendors: it was much too small, maybe 20% layouts and some of… Read More ›
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State University of Murder
State University of Michigan? Hmm… SUM? Is this perhaps a heavily disguised Michigan State University (MSU)? Or would that be too subtle? Anyway, you should read State University of Murder, Lev Raphael’s latest novel. This academic satire is the latest… Read More ›
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Are teachers entitled to get Social Security benefits?
“All the money you’ve put into Social Security goes down the drain,” a certain Weston teacher explained to me in 1998. We had been talking about our work histories and future plans. You need to know three facts: Massachusetts public-school teachers… Read More ›
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Shady Characters
You don’t have to be a typography nerd to enjoy this book, as long as you read it slowly and carefully. Keith Houston (who is not a professional typographer) has written a surprisingly lively book with the title Shady Characters: The… Read More ›
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“The biggest problem teachers have with parents”
The Math Curmudgeon writes: The biggest problem teachers have with parents is getting them to let go the reins, stop the constant hovering, … essentially to back off and let their children learn in peace. … HS is the time… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 