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Who knows
There’s something out of kilter about the way we use the word “kilter.” The word’s first appearance in print was around 1600, and for about a century before that it was “kelter.” Both kilter and its immediate predecessor “kelter” mean “in good order or good condition.” But various dialects of English have had different meanings… Continue reading
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Donald Barthelme
Have you ever read a story by Donald Barthelme? The odds are you haven’t; Jacob Appel (a literary critic) described him in 2010 as “the most influential unread author in United States history.” Barthelme was born April 7, 1931, and died pretty young at 58 in 1989. He published more than a hundred short stories,… Continue reading
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Lexiphanic
“A sophistiocal rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and glorify himself.” That’s what Benjamin Disraieli said about William Gladstone in 1878. Decades before Disraeli and Gladstone rose to prominence… Continue reading
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Alexandr Herzen
The European revolutions of 1848, which attempted to establish socialist systems of government and economics, didn’t spring up out of nowhere. Neither did the Narodniks, who were members of an agrarian socialist movement in Russia in the 1860s and 1870s. Narodism wasn’t the only socialist movement in Tsarist Russia, either; the Socialist Revolutionary Party was… Continue reading
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Jonathan Swift and the English Language
In 1710, Jonathan Swift declared that “…our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions; and the Pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses and Absurdities; and, that in many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar.” He made his declaration… Continue reading
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The valises of April 5
April 5 is partly interesting because it’s the birthday of Tulse Luper, in Newport, Wales, in 1911. Or Tulse might be said to have been born April 5, 1942, also in Newport. It’s an intricate story, best told in the form of several valises; a subset of a much larger collection: Valise 1: It’s possible… Continue reading
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Livery
A shipping agent, particularly if employed by a company like UPS, arrives dressed in livery. If you check the license plate on their vehicle, in some cases it says “livery.” “Livery,” which has nothing to do with “liver,” is from the French word “leveré.” It was delivered into English sometime in the 1300s, and has… Continue reading
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Owen Suffolk
Owen Suffolk was born April 4, 1829, and was not a nice, law-abiding citizen. He was born into a comfortable middle-class life in England, but everything changed when his father’s business was ruined when he was probably in his teens. To make a living he went to sea. When he returned, though, he had no… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer (among other things) located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. No surprise, she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity. You can also find some of my minor software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly write tiny utilities in Python.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
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peterharbeson@me.com