Essays
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That Trip in May a Century Ago
May, 2019 On May 16, 1919, the NC-4 (a Curtiss “flying boat”) took off from Newfoundland en route to Lisbon, They were attempting the first transatlantic flight. When you think about transatlantic flights, it’s natural to assume that they’re nonstop, but this one was not. It was a flying boat, after all — the hull… Continue reading
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Wash. Rinse. Repeat
May 2022 I recently attended a military ritual — it was a group of veterans honoring one particular veteran. The power of it, like the power of any ritual, came from the repetition of the same series of actions. Probably because it was a military ritual, the repetition was precise, and the people involved were… Continue reading
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Repetition
It’s a funny thing about repetition — it’s great, but sometimes it can quite suddenly cross a threshold and become “too much.” The pulse of loud music is a good example; I can be enjoying it and then for some reason, I’ve had enough. I seldom see the threshold approaching. Maybe there isn’t anything approaching… Continue reading
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Math is Not What You Think
Math is not what you think Math is not what you think it is. I think that holds for everybody, even real mathematicians, whose understanding of it is vastly beyond what the rest of us can muster. Math is not just a different thing to different people; I think it’s even a different thing to… Continue reading
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A Raging Torrent
You feel intense rage. There isn’t anything you can do with it. It’s not directed at a particular person, although people are part of it. It’s not about any given company or organization or institution, although all of those contribute to it. You want—need—to express something. You imagine if you could just find the right… Continue reading
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Calendar – Does anybody really know what day it is?
Months are a mess. That is, the names of months are a mess. For instance, “September”, the ninth month, comes from the Latin root “sept-“, meaning seventh. Not only that, but “October” should be the eighth month, “November” the ninth, and “December” the tenth. The names we use for months come from Latin, and as… Continue reading
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Everything is turned up to 11
Does it seem to you like people are right about at their limit of annoyance lately? It sure seems that way to me. Screaming at one another, completely losing their composure on airplanes, in stores, and for that matter, nearly wherever they happen to be. Not to mention shooting one another, which is getting more… Continue reading
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The first thing we do…
July 2022 Lawyers are not particularly popular people, I’ve heard. Maybe it all goes back to Shakespeare’s Henry VI, when Dick the Butcher said to Jack Cade, “First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” There’s a whole context around that, of course, and guess what? It had to do with an armed insurrection. It was… Continue reading
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Maybe we’re dreaming
July 2022 “The American dream;” you hear about it all the time. I wonder if we’ve always taken it the wrong way. A dream can be an aspiration, sure. That’s how we generally think of “the American dream.” It’s what you can aim for, hope for, strive for, and maybe even reach. But dreams are… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated puppy Chocolate. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel.