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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Polostan
Of course I knew that I had to read Polostan as soon as I saw that the author was Neal Stephenson. His 19 previously published novels are all IMHO first-rate — ranging from 1984’s The Big U to 2021’s Termination… Read More ›
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Dylan
Like Bob Dylan himself, the new biopic A Complete Unknown has generated a lot of controversy. So I had to go see it yesterday, sitting in a comfy seat in a Dorchester movie theatre surrounded by hundreds of Dylan fans…. Read More ›
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Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish.
These days, if you just see the title, you probably worry that the song is going to be some antisemitic diatribe on X/Twitter. But 25 years ago that wouldn’t have been your first impression; you would correctly have thought that… Read More ›
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What was the 2024 Word of the Year?
Time’s up! Now that 2024 is over, what do you think was the Word of the Year (WOTY)? Actually, there are many possibilities, largely because many different organizations determine their own answer to that question. But you should first ponder… Read More ›
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Say “Happy new year!” in 27 languages, won’t you?
That’s Afrikaans, Basque, Breton, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Welsh, of course. https://youtu.be/iygnwZoxNHw
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The traditional mid-day Christmas dinner…
…at Chau Chow today: Yum, yum!
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The Good Detective
Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. I had checked out a copy of The Good Detective from the library on the strength of the review in the New York Times, which said this: John McMahon is one of… Read More ›
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Accidence Will Happen
The title is a pun — but it makes sense only if you know what linguists mean by the word “accidence.” Despite that limitation, Accidence Will Happen is very much a book for the general educated reader, not for the… Read More ›
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A close-up view of Neighborhood #2, PowerTown
Slowly but surely (well, slowly at any rate) we continue our journey through the neighborhoods of Rose City, a.k.a. my model railroad layout. Keep in mind that all of it is a work in progress: I won’t keep waiting until… Read More ›
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The Grey Wolf
Louise Penny’s 19th Gamache novel, The Grey Wolf, is a gripping mystery that raises as many questions as it provides answers. Clearly that fact bugs a vocal minority of readers — see below — but it’s just fine with me,… Read More ›
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Close to Death
Close to Death is the fifth Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery by Anthony Horowitz. Yes, you read that correctly: Anthony Horowitz is both the author and the co-protagonist of this series. That’s part of its charm. Of the books in this… Read More ›
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The Lady in the Silver Cloud
If you want to read a New York–based mystery that’s funny without being frivolous, serious while still being amusing, try The Lady in the Silver Cloud, by David Handler. Although this novel is #13 in a series — the “Stewart… Read More ›
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Prostate cancer awareness
A parody performed as an important public service by the wonderful Marsh Family, with music of course by Kurt Weill and words by members of the Marsh Family themselves: https://youtu.be/IkVLe_qI2dw?si=PMaz9T5ef6fNi3Hj (sorry about the ad — not my choice)
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Hallelujah (the movie)
“If I knew where songs came from, I would go there more often.” So replied the late great Leonard Cohen in an apt twist on the answer to that annoying question everyone asks writers: “Where do you get your ideas?”… Read More ›
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Dinner at Henrietta’s
Barbara and I just got back from the middle-of-the-day Thanksgiving dinner buffet at Henrietta’s in Cambridge (in the Charles Hotel, if you’re not familiar with it). Henrietta is a pig, by the way. No comment on that, please. This all… Read More ›
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Cloud Cuckoo Land
Have you been fortunate enough to have studied ancient Greek theater (either in the original or in English translation)? You know which playwrights I mean — Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes. If those are all Greek to you, just keep reading…. Read More ›
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We solve murders.
Richard Osman reassures us: “Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim remain immortal.” I do feel reassured (despite the absence of the Oxford comma). I think. The issue, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, is that Osman’s new mystery novel does not… Read More ›
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A close-up view of Neighborhood #1, Center City
As you know, if you’ve been following this blog, the semi-fictional Rose City is the locale of the model railroad that I’ve been constructing with the assistance of my friend Meredith. You may also recall that there are nine named… Read More ›
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Math for English Majors
No, I was never an English major (although my mom was). I wasn’t even a math major (although I taught math for decades). But, as a linguistics major, I had entwining connections with both English and math, as linguistics intersects… Read More ›
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Developing the new development
As we discussed last month, a new development is in store for Rose City: Rose City’s wealthiest real estate developer, J. Elon Mark Jorgensen — who happens to be the mayor’s brother-in-law, but that of course is just a coincidence… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 