-
Hypercorrection
“Hypercorrection” is the tendency to take a grammatical rule (sometimes a real rule, sometimes imaginary) and extend it via a mistaken analogy. I’m sure you’ve encountered this. It’s behind the idea of changing “doubtless” (a perfectly good word) to “doubtlessly” (not a word), and when you have a word like “ignoramus,” pluralizing it as “ignorami”… Continue reading
-
Busting Blocks
The year is edging toward summer, the season for blockbuster movie releases. One of the seasons, at least; another raft of the things shows up around Christmastime. Take a look at the Hollywood movies of years ago, though, and you’ll notice that the business has changed drastically. In the 1920s and 1930s, studios cranked out… Continue reading
-
Gideon Sundbäck
Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck was born April 24, 1880, on a farm in Sweden. His family was well off, and Sundbäck was able to continue his higher education in Germany. He graduated in 1903 with an engineering degree, and moved to the US in 1905. Sundbäck settled in Pennsylvania, in a medium-sized town, and pursued… Continue reading
-
Shakespeare and Company
William Shakespeare was possibly born today, in 1564. As a writer born on April 23 in the 1500s, it’s understandable if there’s a lot of confusion about him. After all, another writer was born on April 23 in the 1500s — actually the year 1500. I’m talking about Johann Stumpf, of course, who wrote about… Continue reading
-
Linguistic Flexibility?
It’s pretty common in English to use a word in a different way than its “part of speech” suggests. That is, using a verb as a noun, or a noun as a verb, etc. We can get away with this and still be understood because English sentences generally provide plenty of contextual clues so you… Continue reading
-
Bells, dumb and bar
Possibly the most famous piece of exercise equipment ever is the dumbbell. It’s the iconic thing used in illustrations and cartoons; two heavy weights on the ends of a bar. Just a glimpse of it evokes weightlifting, exercise, gyms, and the like. Except…it’s nothing at all like a bell, so what’s with the name? The… Continue reading
-
Liable to a jobation
English tends to have plenty of extra words and phrases for common things. There are loads of synonyms for “money”, for example, and money is certainly something commonplace. Something else you’re likely to encounter repeatedly — sometimes even in the course of a single day — is scolding. Or, if you prefer, rebuking, criticizing, giving… Continue reading
-
A prologue to prolegomenon
“Prolegomenon” was borrowed straight from Latin in the early 1600s, about the time when authors in English got a serious grasp on the sequence “I’ll tell you want I’m gonna tell you, then I’lll tell you, then I’ll tell you what I just told you.” It’s either an introductory chapter, or in more ambitious undertakings,… 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
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
Quotations
Resistance
Stories
Tales from the Forest
Technicalities
Tragedy
Unanticipated Consequences
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com