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It’s too much trouble; where’s my broth?
“Gruel,” which you often read about in old stories about unfortunate waifs in nineteenth-century orphanages, turns out to be a catchall term for various kinds of broth. It could be anything from boiled oatmeal to thin soup. It was served in orphanages, and also to people suffering from various illnesses. But “gruel” is a light,… Continue reading
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On second thought, make it a small
If languages can be said to have sizes, English is clearly one of the jumbos. Maybe the biggest, largest, greatest, most enormous, sizable, grandest, most immense, massive, gigantic, grand, and generous jumbo of them all. It’s got hundreds of thousands of words, after all. One way it got so big is by having multiple words… Continue reading
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Anna Maria Jarvis
It’s the first of May, and in the US, that means Mother’s Day is coming up soon. It’s a strange holiday in many respects, and seems to mostly exist to support the greeting card, candy, flower shop, and restaurant industries. And it was founded by Anna Maria Jarvis, who was born May 1, 1864 in… Continue reading
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Move along, nothing here
I usually write about words that are hard to find, and sometimes about words that are interesting in some unusual way. But I hardly ever mention words that don’t exist at all. But as you might guess — well, OK, maybe you wouldn’t guess because why would you even be thinking about it — regardless,… Continue reading
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Unilaterally uniliteral
Most people know that when something is “unilateral” it applies to one side only. If an agreement is unilateral, it’s not really an agreement because only one side has agreed. There can also be unilateral disarmament, unilateral decisions, and so on. The word is derived from the Latin word “unilateralis,” which in turn was assembled… Continue reading
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Amok. Running, that is.
It’s either an idiosyncrasy of English, or possibly of human nature: the only way to arrive at being “amok” appears to be by running. It’s been like that ever since the 1600s: “Like a raging Indian..he runs amucke (as they cal it there) stabbing every man he meets.” The word comes from Malaysia. When the… Continue reading
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Claude Shannon
A master’s thesis is not typically a work of entirely original research or scholarship, like a PhD dissertation. Instead, it’s supposed to demonstrate, well, “mastery” of a field. But every once in a while, a student writes a master’s thesis that’s original and even groundbreaking. That’s what Claude Shannon did, back in the late 1930s. … Continue reading
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Not so hot
Hot is hot and cold is cold, and in the middle is “warm.” If you’re talking about certain things (a day or a slice of toast for example), “warm” is a word you’d be likely to use. But other things (for some reason, liquids; water or milk) you might use “lukewarm” even though they could… Continue reading
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How soothing
If you visit a “soothsayer”, what you’re looking for is a prediction of the future. You might or might not find the prediction soothing — a word that comes from the same origins. “Sooth” is an ancient word meaning truth. It was originally Old English, and by the 1700s it was already archaic and obsolete.… Continue reading
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John Stewart (Jack) Williamson
Have you noticed that there’s a certain cycle of “technological dangers” that for a while are probably going to end life as we know it — then something else comes along and the first one is mostly forgotten. Nuclear winter was one, nanotechnology was another, and the current existential threat and generator of countless essays… 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 newsletter, Artisanal Scribbles, where I’m grappling with writing, authentic human authorship, integrity, and the craft of beauty in the AI age. You can also find some of my old software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly wrote tiny utilities in Python and shell scripts. I’m mostly retired from coding nowadays.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
Recent Posts
- Educational Trip
- Yeah but what about the Jewish Space Lasers?
- Happy Anniversary?
- Alleys
- Your pockets aren’t deep enough
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