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The terrifying territory of terrior
In France, the characteristics of the regional environment where a food or wine is produced has a word: “terrior.” It’s not just the region, climate, soil, and topography, but the flavor and related characteristics of the food as well. The word “terroir” comes from the Latin word “territorium,” which is also the source of ‘territory.’ … Continue reading
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It’s 5 o’clock somewhere
From the roaring twenties to at least the 1960s, a common trope in the US was to declare “cocktail hour,” which was usually about five pm. It was also pretty common for the average home to include some of the gadgets and accessories for making “cocktails:” pitchers, shakers, various measuring cups, stirrers, and the like.… Continue reading
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Edwin H. Land
Now that we’re in the digital age, it can be hard to remember that a great many of the things we enjoy because of digital circuitry were available in the past, in analog form. For instance, we take it for granted that we can snap a picture and see the results right away. There’s nothing… Continue reading
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A semi-serious topic
The message for to-day (which is the way “today” used to be written) is about hyphens. Using hyphens is a bit of a black art in English, and people have written many e-mails to publications criticizing this or that bit of hyphenation. There aren’t any rules. Or, really, there are rules, but they’re often contradictory.… Continue reading
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Back in 1914
1914 was a remarkable year. Although World War I began then, which is notable but really can’t be considered a credit to its time, 1914 also saw the introduction of the first commercial airplane passenger service in the world — between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida. That doesn’t sound like much today, particularly since those… Continue reading
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Johann Becher
If you had been a resident of Speyer in the mid 1600s, you would probably have known about Johann Joachim Becher, who was the leading intellectual of that area. The city of Speyer is still around, and now it’s in Germany. When Becher was born, on May 6, 1635, it was in the Holy Roman… Continue reading
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“You’ve got a pink kink in your think”
When you’re feeling “in the pink”, that means you’re in excellent health and feeling fine. In his 1923 novel Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse used it this way: “‘I am in excellent health, I thank you. And you?’ ‘In the pink. Just been over to America.’” The first one to use “pink” in this sense was… Continue reading
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The color of…
In 1931, the Commission internationale de l’éclairage (International Commission on Illumination or “CIE”), created the CIE 1931 XYZ Color Space. It’s a way of plotting colors by their wavelengths in the visible (to humans) spectrum, and is still in use as the basis for describing (and matching) specific colors when you’re working with, say, ink,… Continue reading
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Calling a phon a phon
In many books — the old kind, actually printed in real ink on real paper — there’s a page near the end that tells you some things about the book itself. Sometimes it lists the typefaces used, occasionally the paper, and maybe even some of the people involved in creating the book, such as the… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. This site is just a hobby, at least for now.
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