Recent Posts - page 70
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What’s wrong with Google Classroom?
Google Classroom? What’s that? If you aren’t currently a student, teacher, or administrator in a school setting, you probably haven’t heard of it, although you may be surmising that it’s part of Google’s plan to take over the world. (Not… Read More ›
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Revisiting The Industry
It was time for our annual visit to The Industry, Dorchester’s best restaurant. I say “annual,” but it was only our second visit: I first reviewed it shortly after it opened, about seven months ago. It’s still great. Before commenting… Read More ›
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Retiring
I am retiring in four months. To paraphrase a colleague whom I have never met, “I will be retiring from Weston, not from education.” After 21 years at Weston — and 44 years altogether in teaching — it’s time. I told… Read More ›
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Shadow of the Lions
Thirteen years ago [has it really been that long?] I wrote an essay called “Literature & math: imaginary gardens with real toads.” The phrase following the colon quotes from Marianne Moore’s characterization of poetry, but I was connecting it with math in… Read More ›
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Spirals & fractals at the MoS
Another museum visit on my staycation was to the Museum of Science: the special exhibit Numbers in Nature, continuing through April 25. My capsule summary is that it is generally high in quality but low in quantity. Yes, I agree that… Read More ›
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DreamLand Wax Museum
Sometimes a Groupon just leaps out at you and demands to be purchased. It’s a bah-gain, after all, so how could you resist? That’s how Barbara and I ended up visiting Boston’s DreamLand Wax Museum as part of our staycation this week…. Read More ›
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Why teach programming/coding? For the nth time…
This seems to be an endless debate: why should we teach programming? (Or coding, if that’s what you prefer to call it.) We have to split the question into at least three versions, and probably more: Why should we offer… Read More ›
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Still Life
What a beautiful collection of locally grown early-Autumn produce provided by one of my colleagues (looks like a still life, doesn’t it?)
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“Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from anxiety?”
The cover article in the New York Times Magazine from 10/15 (yes, I’m just now catching up) asks, “Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from severe anxiety?” The author, Benoit Denizen-Lewis, continues with this observation: “Parents, therapists and schools are… Read More ›
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Y is for Yesterday
So we’re down to Y. Just one more to go. As I’ve previously reviewed some of the other novels in Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, I should write something about this one as well. I listened to the audiobook this time,… Read More ›
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Introverts and group work
I hear that you hate group work (and other collaborative work)? Why? Perhaps it’s because you’re an introvert. Or perhaps not. There are three other reasons why some of my students hate group work; I identify with all three reasons… Read More ›
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Should you take the math course you want to take?
A brief anecdote posted by The Math Curmudgeon and a comment from a reader a couple of days ago raise two different but interlocking issues: how do you take school administrators seriously when they directly contradict themselves, and should students… Read More ›
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Happy Hangul Day!
Happy Hangul Day — five days late. Sorry that I missed it! “What’s Hangul Day?” you ask. You mean you didn’t follow the link in the previous paragraph???? Or perhaps you do know what Hangul is but you don’t know… Read More ›
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It’s Complicated
I almost never write about a book that I didn’t or couldn’t finish, unless there’s just something egregious about it. Some people, of course, feel a sort of moral obligation to finish reading any book they’ve started, but life is… Read More ›
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The Puffin of Death
Puffins? OK, I guess, but I’m not really into birds, though my colleague from Newfoundland probably approves of puffins. Despite the usual connection with Newfoundland, the puffins in this mystery are actually in Iceland. And therein lies most of the… Read More ›
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Caption, anyone?
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The Late Show (no, not that one)
This Late Show is the newest police procedural by Michael Connelly, famous for his intertwined Harry Bosch series and Lincoln Lawyer series. Although they say you can’t tell a book by its cover, this cover clearly reveals that The Late Show is the first… Read More ›
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Couldn’t happen to me!
Or could it?
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Weston in first place!
After Thursday’s meet (first meet of the year), Weston is currently in first place among medium-sized schools in the Massachusetts Math League, even beating Canton! Here are totals for the top five schools so far: 5 Tewksbury 34 4 Lynnfield… Read More ›
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Lexicon Valley (and a bit of Freakonomics)
And now we come to my fourth and last post about linguistics podcasts, which I promised almost two weeks ago. You get two for the price of one here — well, more like 2¼ for the price of one, as we… Read More ›
Featured Categories
Books ›
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The Odyssey (my failed attempt to see the movie)
August 12, 2026
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Murder off the Page
August 6, 2026
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With Prejudice
July 31, 2026
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Happy birthday (or maybe not), Messrs. Strunk and White!
July 30, 2026
Dorchester/Boston ›
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Bred
August 21, 2026
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Morning glories
August 13, 2026
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Good stuff cheap! The story of Jerry Ellis and Building #19
August 4, 2026
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Hydrangeas
July 27, 2026
Food & Restaurants ›
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How was last night at Tavolo different from all other nights?
May 7, 2026
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Dot Block Diner
April 21, 2026
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Happy spring! Happy buck-a-shuck!
March 20, 2026
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A special brunch at Tavolo
March 1, 2026
Life ›
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Fireworks
July 3, 2026
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Christina II
July 1, 2026
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Speaking of Les Miz…
June 27, 2026
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The Tartan Army: the day Scottish FIFA fans drank Boston dry
June 26, 2026
Linguistics ›
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What, I hear you ask, is an inverted oloid? (For that matter what is a plain vanilla oloid?)
August 14, 2026
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Why don’t Native Americans want to be called Native Americans?
July 28, 2026
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Unabridged
June 28, 2026
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Judeo-Arabic
May 24, 2026
Math ›
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Very sad news
October 17, 2025
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The metric system has gotten an update!
July 14, 2025
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As Tom Lehrer says, that’s mathematics!
July 9, 2025
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The Plinko Bounce
June 28, 2025
Model Railroading ›
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Only the best…
July 22, 2026
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Where are the women?
April 13, 2026
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Famous railway modellers
March 16, 2026
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“So you want a model railroad” — a well-known… okay… not-so-well-known Warner Bros. film from 1955
November 22, 2025
Movies & (occasionally) TV ›
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Picard: Welcome to the Sticks!
March 6, 2026
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The new Springsteen bio-pic
November 11, 2025
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Breaking Silence: a truly outstanding documentary!
July 29, 2025
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The Social Network
May 11, 2025
Teaching & Learning ›
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Who’s better at understanding written English — you or some random teen in South Korea?
January 22, 2026
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Triple threat: Carl Sagan, critical thinking, and an exam
October 13, 2025
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Truly these are oldies but goodies — songs from… wait for it… two millennia ago!
September 28, 2025
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Measles and polio down in the schoolyard
September 8, 2025
Technology ›
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Claude vs. ChatGPT
May 28, 2026
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Will the real John McWhorter please stand up? (No, no, that’s not the real one; that’s the AI John McWhorter!)
January 18, 2026
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Not the other Wes Moore
June 22, 2025
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Bye bye Mark Z.
February 6, 2025
Travel ›
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Interesting address
April 8, 2026
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Taunton vs. Colmar?
March 4, 2026
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Written in the South Pacific during World War II
February 17, 2025
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Globle
February 15, 2023
Weston ›
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A former student’s PhD defense
August 15, 2025
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“Dear parents of math geniuses…,” writes Tanya Khovanova
December 6, 2022
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How can girls succeed at the highest level of high-school debate?
November 20, 2022
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Reading Latin and Ancient Greek for fun and profit. For what? Fun? Yes, fun. Really. And the profit was purely intellectual, not financial.
October 19, 2022
