“You learn something new every day of your life,” my dad used to say to me. He was right, of course. A week ago I learned a concept that is, apparently, familiar to economists and philosophers but was for some… Read More ›
Life
Martin Badoian, RIP
I am saddened to report that Martin Badoian died on Friday at age 90. Marty taught at Canton High School until he was 89! He is best known for coaching the amazingly successful math team at Canton and for founding… Read More ›
International Pronouns Day
As everyone knows, today is International Pronouns Day. Why, you might ask, does such a day exist? There’s no International Adjectives Day, after all. Or International Verbs Day. What’s so special about pronouns? It’s all because English has these gendered… Read More ›
New Guinea to New Jersey, 1943
No, I’m not old enough to remember World War II. But I can reprint a letter that my dad, then stationed in New Guinea, wrote to my mom in 1943: This was four years before I was born. (In New… Read More ›
Do Trump supporters have empathy?
What does brain science show about whether Trump supporters have empathy? Three days ago I published a post, “Red Brain, Blue Brain,” about a recent Hidden Brain podcast. I discussed some conservative/liberal generalities, but nothing specifically physiological or anatomical. Now it’s time… Read More ›
Elderly?
How old is she? From Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop (1946):
Red brain, blue brain
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. Remember who said that? I’m sure you do. You probably also remember that it’s a certain well-known Republican talking about immigrants from Mexico… Read More ›
A later start time
Weston students, parents, and teachers: Is the later start time working? Let me know!
The cat on the (purple) mat
Douglas looks so handsome on his purple mat, even if he’s deliberately ignoring the Rubik’s Cube:
Where to store your rage and keep ire away
Credit to Nigel Fabb via Arnold Zwicky for this photo of the Metropolitan Rage Warehouse in Cambridge, where you can store your rage and keep it safe from anyone’s ire:
A small job
As you can see, we badly needed a new ceiling in our guest room. We also needed a ceiling light, not to mention a fan. And while we were at it, we also needed a new ceiling and new light… Read More ›
This is a democracy. Whoever gets the most votes wins… right?
Here we are, one day after primary elections in Massachusetts, and we see that whoever got the most votes in each race won. Right? Well, it’s not so simple. In the first place, one tenet of democracy is majority rule,… Read More ›
Vote!
If you live in Massachusetts, be sure to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/4) in the primaries! In most races in this state the primary is more important than the general election.
Did you know that Boston is 53% non-white?
I like this store, but…
Your iPad or your chicken.
William is holding my iPad hostage until I give him some of my chicken:
The golden meanie
Fellow math nerds: check out Sandra Boynton’s pet, Fibonacci. Of course he’s a golden meanie: She describes him thus: The Golden Meanie is a mythical beast of pleasing proportions but unpleasant temperament. Oh well. You can’t have everything.
Vincent and Giraffe
Vincent likes his new giraffe rug. (Doesn’t look much like a giraffe to me, but what do I know?)
Super Boys
“It’s a man, it’s a bird…” OK, stop right there. You know what this is about. But maybe you don’t. The beginning of this thorough biography of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, does indeed focus on their… Read More ›
Fireworks and You
“Hey, Larry!” shouts my neighbor as I take out the trash yesterday evening. “Where are your fireworks?” “People shouldn’t be setting off fireworks in residential neighborhoods,” I reply. “They scare cats and dogs.” “But you’re not scared,” he reasoned. “No,… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 