Pylimitics

"Simplicity" rearranged


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  • November 7

    November seventh turns out to be the anniversary of three of the oldest things around. In 1492, on the outskirts of Ensisheim, France, a meteorite fell — it’s the oldest one with a record of when it arrived. Then in 1665, in London, the London Gazette was first published. It’s the oldest journal in the… Continue reading

  • Things worth a Look

    This is in McSweeny’s Internet Tendency: “A Reminder to Submit Your First Week Attendance to the Registrar, in the Style of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses” by Ben Steere. This is from The New Yorker: “Why AI Isn’t Going To Make Art,” by Ted Chiang. Chiang is the author of extremely thoughtful speculative fiction,… Continue reading

  • Weather or not

    In 1812, a bit later in the year than it is now, there was a warm spell in Boston. In those days it was called Indian Summer, and a clergyman in the city explained the term this way (he may have been making it up): “This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name… Continue reading

  • Head in the clouds

    Being on cloud nine means great happiness, euphoria, the very pinnacle of joy, accomplishment, satisfaction, or gratification. But there are other clouds too. In 1955, Tony Bennett recorded an album called Cloud 7. There must have been something about that particular cloud around that time, because a 1954 article in the US Army’s Stars and… Continue reading

  • Character of the day: Tom Swift

    The technological history of the 20th Century started with tinkerers and mechanics building new machines, and progressed to more complex machines backed by scientific theory and advanced math. And all of it was embodied in one person: Tom Swift, the teenage genius inventor and hero of more than 100 books. Tom appeared in 1910 in… Continue reading

  • The Secret Ingredient

    “The thing is,” said Hare, “we’re just going to have to find some, and that’s all there is to it.” “But there are plenty of other things you could use instead,” said Raccoon. “No,” said Hare, “I’m making my special salad, and every single ingredient is carefully selected. Substituting one thing would change the whole… Continue reading

  • After the Party

    After the Barn Party For a long time afterward, the party in the barn was known as “the party in the barn”. Anyone in the forest could say “remember when we went to the party in the barn,” and whoever they were talking to would say “yes, I remember the party in the barn. It… Continue reading

  • Cantrev

    If you’re interested in ancient tales set in the British Isles, and you’ve already read Beowulf, you might turn to the Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge or the Welsh Mabinogion. There’s a certain structure pretty common to epic stories from thousands of years ago; you can still find basically the same thing in super hero comics.… Continue reading

  • November 6

    Today is November 6, and it’s a holiday! But I bet you didn’t know that. You see, unlike other holidays that have primarily caught on because of catchy names like “Mother’s Day” and “Halloween” — that is, holidays with competent public relations teams — today is the “International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the… 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.