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
-
Yankees’ fans in Weston
In my geometry class today, some students caught sight of a file on my computer named Weston+Yankees.pdf, so of course they wanted to know what it was. It turned out to be a Boston Globe article from six and a… Read More ›
-
Hangman
I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Faye Kellerman’s latest novel, Hangman, beautifully narrated by Mitchell Greenberg. While I liked it a lot, I can understand why some people might not. In the first place, this book is… Read More ›
-
Chanukah is not the Jewish Christmas
Do read this excellent piece by Penelope Trunk. Although her focus is on Christmas in the workplace in the context of promoting diversity, her views have much wider applicability. Here are a couple of brief excerpts: It seems there should… Read More ›
-
Born to Kvetch
So what’s not to love about this book? Just don’t expect Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish, which is a much lighter and less consequential work. Michael Wex’s Born to Kvetch is a serious, in-depth, expert analysis of conversational Yiddish… Read More ›
-
Making order out of chaos
My principal has selected me to give the first presentation in a proposed series of talks to be delivered by faculty and staff; the audience will consist of colleagues, students, parents, and community members. I’ve written a very rough description… Read More ›
-
This Body of Death
This Body of Death, the latest in Elizabeth George’s series of literary mysteries, is well worth reading if you’re familiar with some (or preferably all) of the earlier novels in the series. I’m not at all sure, however, that it’s… Read More ›
-
Don’t dismiss Wikipedia!
The Weston High School Library recently posted a slide show from Rutgers University explaining why students shouldn’t use Wikipedia. This carefully produced polemic deserves a thoughtful rebuttal; I have endeavored to write one here. Be sure to watch the slide… Read More ›
-
Sleeping moon
Apparently in honor of the holidays, someone has “enhanced” local artist Joseph Wheelwright’s sculpture, Sleeping Moon, which sits prominently in Peabody Square in Dorchester right next to Ashmont Station. I have no idea whether the modification was authorized or not…. Read More ›
-
Shanghai dumplings and the gas tank
Just got back from another excellent dim sum at the Dorchester branch of Chau Chow. If you live anywhere near Dorchester, come here for dim sum! Unlike Chinatown, parking is easy in their own lot and the overflow lot across the… Read More ›
-
An international Thanksgiving
It was another international Thanksgiving at my sister’s house this year — nine Americans and nine visitors from abroad. I counted three from Germany, one from France, one from Korea, three from Taiwan, and apparently one from somewhere Spanish-speaking, but… Read More ›
-
Capitol Betrayal and Inside Out
Because I have such a large backlog of reading material, I often put print books and audiobooks on a queue; I get to them whenever I get to them. It could easily be months later, so I no longer remember… Read More ›
-
“Solving” the Rubik’s Cube
Why is it that the phrase “solving the Rubik’s cube” has such a different meaning to me than it does to others? For a long time I was quite puzzled by people who made the implausible claim that they had… Read More ›
-
Why 1 is not prime
At Saturday Course we were working with prime numbers, and one fifth-grader asked his classmates a question: Student A: Is 1 a prime number? Student B: No. Student A: So it’s composite? Student B: No, it isn’t prime and it… Read More ›
-
The Corrections
Too often I expect to like a certain book and then I’m disappointed. Occasionally the opposite situation happens to me; such is the case with Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. I tend to read so much genre fiction and non-fiction that… Read More ›
-
Feeling like a community
A class ought to feel like a community. (Mathematically speaking, that’s what make it a class, rather than a set. Yes, it’s a slightly different meaning of the word “class,” but the resemblance is not a coincidence.) We’ve all been… Read More ›
-
Weston’s Math Department on nation-wide TV
The Math Department of Weston High School & Middle School was featured in a report on last night’s NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams! Be sure to watch all the way to the end (it’s only two and half minutes), not… Read More ›
-
Sel de la Terre (Back Bay)
As we had an about-to-expire Groupon for the Back Bay location of Sel de la Terre, Barbara and I had dinner there this evening. We’ve been to the original Long Wharf location many times, so it seemed appropriate to try… Read More ›
-
Lost in Lexicon Launch Party
Yesterday I wrote about Penny Noyce’s new book, Lost in Lexicon. What prompted that post was that I was on my way to the official launch party for the book. It was a great success, and I saw a couple… Read More ›
-
Lost in Lexicon
If you regularly see my Facebook status in your News Feed, you may have noticed that it said “I’m lost in Lexicon right now…” on October 17. This status confused some of my students. One of them asked, “How did… Read More ›
-
Daylight saving time
Why is it that so many people say “daylight savings time” when the correct phrase so clearly is “daylight saving time”???? Do they think it’s like a savings account, where you put an hour of daylight in at one time… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 