I recently read OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word, by Allan Metcalf. For some unaccountable reason this book has only two customer reviews on Amazon; there must be some good reason for that. Anyway, Metcalf tells you everything… Read More ›
Linguistics
Slides from my talk on linguistics
I have posted the slides from my linguistics talk, but I’m not sure how useful they are without audio. The talk, after all, was an oral presentation accompanied by slides, not a visual presentation accompanied by audio. So I’m going… Read More ›
Making order out of chaos
Yesterday evening I delivered the first lecture in our new Beyond the Classroom series, described as follows: Weston High School is pleased to announce a new series of talks for the whole community led by our esteemed faculty members on a broad… Read More ›
Utopia in Four Movements
Saw an absolutely fascinating movie yesterday at the ICA: Utopia in Four Movements. This engaging film, which premiered last year at Sundance, is unusual in at least two ways. First, although it has music and voice-over like most documentaries, both… Read More ›
Making order out of chaos
BSP*: Come hear my talk on linguistics at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, February 1, at the Weston Public Library! Here’s a description: Making order out of chaos: A conversation about linguistics “Linguistics? What’s that?” This is the usual response I… Read More ›
Names of polygons
Why do so many of my students use incorrect names for various polygons? They claim that they are merely recalling what they have been taught; maybe this is so, maybe not. I suppose there are two major possibilities: They are… 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 ›
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 ›
Facebook “friends”
Listen in on this conversation: Teacher 1: I hear that you friend your students on Facebook. Teacher 2: Not exactly. I accept friend requests from current and former students. But I never initiate them. Teacher 1: Even so, it’s a… Read More ›
Avatar
What more can I add to all the chatter about James Cameron’s Avatar? Not much, except to share my opinions. You probably already know all that you need to know about this movie, and I certainly don’t want to include any… Read More ›
Linguistics, mathematics, and mysteries
“I make order out of chaos.” This is how an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in years explains her transition from linguistics to statistics, when people think it’s a complete change of field. It’s how she explains it to… Read More ›
The Meaning of Everything
Like many other books that I enjoy, Simon Winchester’s non-fiction opus, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, won’t appeal to everyone. But if you’re interested in words — and the development of the English language… Read More ›
A wandering past participle, or a new idiom?
Maybe I am inadvertently committing the Recency Fallacy, but it seems to me that up until last year or so the past participle of pet was petted: “Where do your cats like to be petted?” <http://www.mihav.com/en/forum/share-amp-chat/where-do-your-cats-like-to-162014> “pet; petted; petting” <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pet>… Read More ›
An interview in Wildcat Tracks
Junior Lauren Avery, one of the editors of Weston High School’s student newspaper, Wildcat Tracks, asked if she could interview me. Of course I said yes, and the result was a half-page article that focused on my transition from linguistics… Read More ›
The Good Woman of Setzuan
Congratulations to the Weston High School Theater Company for another first-rate production! The last time I saw Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan must have been at least 20 years ago, so I didn’t remember much about it except… Read More ›
Struggle
At this week’s Math Department meeting, we spent the first 15 minutes or so discussing what we do to help “struggling students” succeed in our courses — particularly what resources we provide. Something was bothering me about the whole discussion,… Read More ›
Pasha
I’ve had lunch twice so far at Pasha, a new Turkish restaurant in Arlington Center. Although I don’t know anything yet about their dinners, I can highly recommend it on the basis of the two lunches. If you’ve never had… Read More ›
The Internet isn't melting our brains.
Vincent Rossmeier has written a refreshing article in Salon entitled “Is the Internet melting our brains?” Essentially an interview with linguist Dennis Baron about his new book, A Better Pencil, the article counters much of the typical hand-wringing in the… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 