Recent Posts - page 108

  • Salt of the earth

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    Barbara and I went to Sel de la Terre to celebrate her birthday yesterday. As always, the food and service were excellent, though I found the entire experience a bit pricey: $200 in total, including wine (one of the least… Read More ›

  • Boston Trolley Meet

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    Just got back from the Boston Trolley Meet (actually held in Somerville, not Boston). This event, sponsored by the Boston Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, offered a combination of layouts, dealer tables, and field trips. The actual exhibit… Read More ›

  • Technology in school

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    No, this isn’t another one of those essays about the usefulness of technology in teaching math. This is a response to a fascinating post in Heather’s Comparative Childhood blog, in response to a newsletter from her daughter’s middle school. Here’s… Read More ›

  • Where can Dorchester kids get into college?

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    Where can Dorchester kids get into college? Anywhere! Some of my Weston students believe that they are entitled to go to Harvard and BC and Bryn Mawr, but kids who go to public schools in Dorchester and Roxbury certainly aren’t… Read More ›

  • Money talks in Weston

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    In Algebra II class today we happened to be talking about a certain prominent mathematician/physicist, and I remarked that he’s “the smartest living American, as he himself will be happy to tell you.” “That can’t be true!” objected one student…. Read More ›

  • Death Comes for the Fat Man

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    Highly recommended: Death Comes for the Fat Man, by Reginald Hill. This latest installment of the literate Dalziel-Pascoe series continues the high standards of its predecessors, though Dalziel plays almost no role in it. I won’t tell you what the… Read More ›

  • Amazing math applets

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    Check out the Lawrenceville School’s amazing math applets! They provide links to class-demonstration applets that range from the unit circle and the sine function through transformations and vector addition all the way to slope fields and Riemann sums — not… Read More ›

  • Visiting Elmira

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    Barbara and I just got back from spending a week in Elmira. Actually it was just five days, it only felt like a week. Mostly I played a bunch of computer Scrabble, took some walks in the surprisingly nice weather,… Read More ›

  • Daddy’s Girl

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    On the whole I recommend Daddy’s Girl, by Lisa Scottoline. Formally it’s a mystery, but it’s mostly about families. Like many mysteries, it also carries a theme of law vs. justice, and Scottoline does an effective job of exploring this… Read More ›

  • All-Dorchester seder

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    Yes, it was one night early for Passover, but last night Barbara and I attended the 2008 All-Dorchester Seder, which is held every year at the First Parish Church. A seder at a church? Well, yes. In the first place,… Read More ›

  • Justice Denied

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    Just finished reading J.A. Jance’s Justice Denied, the 18th novel in the author’s J.P. Beaumont series of Seattle-based police procedurals. Though it’s not one of her best, Jance clearly hasn’t gotten tired and can still write a taut mystery with… Read More ›

  • Don’t families in Weston talk about politics at home?

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    Overheard this morning at Weston High School…part of a conversation between two sophomores: “What can you tell me about John McCain?” “Who’s he?” ”Oh, he’s some dude who’s running for President.”

  • Double Vision

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    I have just finished reading Double Vision, by Randall Ingermanson. This science fiction thriller has a great concept, but the execution is disappointing. On the plus side, the novel speaks effectively to those of us who have worked in the… Read More ›

  • Dorchester and Weston

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    According to an article in this morning’s Boston Globe, the average annual income in Dorchester 02124 (where I live) is $34,556. The average annual income in Weston 02493 (where I teach) is $531,374. That’s a ratio of slightly more than… Read More ›

  • Pirates in Weston

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    Last night the Weston High School Theatre Company put on a charming performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. The acting and singing were strong; the scenery, set, and costumes terrific; the pit orchestra first-rate. Derek Kief’s portrayal… Read More ›

  • An evening in Jamaica Plain

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    Barbara and I spent a few hours yesterday evening in Jamaica Plain. First we walked to the Axiom Gallery, which is hosting an intriguing Math and Art exhibit through April 27 right next to the Green Street T station (confusingly… Read More ›

  • Gun, with Occasional Music

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    Take one part Raymond Chandler and two parts Philip K. Dick. Or maybe it’s two parts Dashiell Hammett and one part Aldous Huxley. Let’s try all four. Then add three parts of George Orwell. Mix them all together, and you… Read More ›

  • N is a Number

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    I mentioned two days ago that I was going to watch N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős, a documentary that had been enthusiastically recommended to me by my former student, Kelly Mathislife. She writes that N is… Read More ›

  • Heroes

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    As I was reading Paul Graham’s essay, “Some Heroes,” it struck me that I’ve never liked being asked who my heroes are. In his second and fourth paragraphs, Graham reflects on the question itself: I’m not claiming this is a… Read More ›

  • 21

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    Two and a half years ago I wrote a brief negative review of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich. I suggested that the account seemed to be… Read More ›