Recent Posts - page 65

  • How to subscribe

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    A couple of my regular readers have asked me how to subscribe to this blog, so that they will be automagically notified whenever a new post appears. WordPress makes this process very simple: in the lower right corner of each… Read More ›

  • Eighth Grade

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    Show of hands: Who wants to live through eighth grade again? I don’t see very many hands there. By now I’m sure you’ve heard of Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham’s all-too-real coming-of-age movie. Billed as a comedy, it’s mostly uncomfortable and… Read More ›

  • Who on earth counts in base six?

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    All cultures count in base ten, because humans have ten fingers. That’s common knowledge — so common that it isn’t even true. It is, of course, true that most cultures count in base ten, with some obvious and well-known exceptions… Read More ›

  • Your iPad or your chicken.

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    William is holding my iPad hostage until I give him some of my chicken:

  • The golden meanie

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    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

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    Vincent likes his new giraffe rug. (Doesn’t look much like a giraffe to me, but what do I know?)

  • Is Chinese a language? (I.e., is Chinese a language?)

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    Note the subtle use of italics to express emphasis in the title. 😀 Why do people persist in referring to Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, and so forth as dialects rather than languages? Actually, there are a couple of good explanations — “good”… Read More ›

  • Weston alum blogs about Ireland and Tanzania.

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    Take a look at Studying abroad in Ireland and Tanzania, a wonderful travel blog by Weston alum Izzi Lambrecht, currently a rising senior at Holy Cross. For example, read her recent essay “Soooo How Much Agency Do We Have? Pondering in… Read More ›

  • Educated

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    I’m not quite sure how I feel about Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated. Comparisons with Hillbilly Elegy, which I did not like, are inevitable. The stories are actually quite different, as are the attitudes of the narrators. I had referred to J.D. Vance (author of… Read More ›

  • Tolkien, Adams, Rowling, Asimov: Re-reading a trilogy (or do I mean “series”?)

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    You’ll notice something strange in this screen shot: the Hitchhiker’s trilogy apparently consists of five books, not three. But of course that’s part of the shtick. What are we supposed to call it? The Hitchhiker’s pentalogy? Nah, the generic word is… Read More ›

  • Super Boys

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    “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

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    “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 ›

  • Thinking (back) about Trig?

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    Why did somebody recommend to me a blog called A Portrait of a Math Teacher as an Aging Man? Are they trying to tell me something? I’m not sure that I should be thrilled about that 😀. Nevertheless, the recommended blog… Read More ›

  • Why do Asian-Americans excel at math?

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    Stereotypes, data, statistics, racism, tiger moms… what is this issue really about? Unless you want to be an ostrich and hide your head in the sand — hoping that the assumption behind this question is untrue — you really need… Read More ›

  • APs for all?

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    “Who am I to tell a student you can’t be in honors or AP?” said a guidance counselor at New Mission High School (a charter school in Boston) in a fascinating WGBH report. The gist of the report, titled “The… Read More ›

  • τ > π.

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    Happy Tau Day! Argh, I was supposed to post this yesterday, of course. If you don’t know what tau (τ) is, I could just tell you that it’s C/r, which is approximately 6.28, hence 6/28 is Tau Day. But that… Read More ›

  • Cinquecento etc.

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    For the second year in a row, Barbara and I went to Cinquecento for our anniversary dinner. The high standards of food and service remain (even with a clearly inexperienced server). But I should have checked the review I wrote… Read More ›

  • Adieu, Weston

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    Cliché Central calling: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Yes, it’s a cliché, but it makes a point. Over the last couple of weeks, people kept asking me how I felt (not my favorite question,… Read More ›

  • Egyptian Hieroglyphics

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    Just completed the second week of Weston High School’s June Academy, in which I taught a course on Egyptian Hieroglyphics. In the photo below you can see two posters that showcase some of the students’ work, including carefully drawn name… Read More ›

  • Tolkien Exhibit

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    This certainly sounds like an exciting exhibit! Here’s a brief description: Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores Tolkien’s amazing legacy from his genius as an artist, poet, linguist, and author to his academic career and private life. The exhibition takes you on… Read More ›