-
Sprunk (without Wagnalls)
If you want to make sure you don’t have a smear of grease across your nose after working on your car, or check to see that your meticulously-applied clown makeup is in good shape just before the Halloween party, you might use a pocket mirror. Sometimes the folding versions of these are called “compacts.” But Continue reading
-
Lyn St. James
Despite lots of progress in diversity, there are still some professions in which women are enormously underrepresented. One of them is automobile racing. Although there aren’t any restrictions against female drivers, and women may even be more physically suited to the sport, there have been very few women racing drivers. One exception, and one of Continue reading
-
Compound interest
Remember that time I said English wasn’t one of those languages with a different word for every specific thing? And then remember the times I’ve pointed out that there really aren’t any rules governing English? Good, because even though English uses noun phrases instead of minting new words…it also works exactly the opposite. English speakers Continue reading
-
Ken (but not Barbie)
Usually when an English word appears only in local dialects for part of its history, that’s the earlier part of its story. But sometimes a widely-used word disappears from general use only to survive locally. That’s the case with “ken,” which had quite a list of meanings back in the day, but since the beginning Continue reading
-
March 13
March 13 When I compile each Book of Days post, I review everything I can find about events of that day. I’ve been doing this for a while now. I’ve noticed that for most dates, there are plenty of battles, wars, massacres, assassinations, sieges, and attacks. If you wanted to write a book of days Continue reading
-
Tammy Duckworth
March 12 is Tammy Duckworth’s 56th birthday. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand. Her father was from the US, and her mother was Thai. Although she was born in Bangkok, her father worked for the United Nations in refugee housing and development, and the family moved frequently throughout Southeast Asia. As a child, Duckworth became Continue reading
-
Frankly
Quite frankly, it’s not immediately clear why “frankly” should mean open and honest. It has nothing to do with a truthy guy named Frank, after all. The word arrived in Middle English somewhere near 1300 from the French “franc,” which at the time did not yet have to do with monetary currency. Instead, in both Continue reading
-
Inglenook
You may have seen a brand of wine called “Inglenook.” You may have heard of Inglenook, California — which, by the way, is not where Inglenook Wine is produced. You may have heard of Inglenook, Pennsylvania, which also doesn’t produce any wine. There’s even a logic puzzle called “inglenook sidings;” the puzzle is to shuffle Continue reading
-
March 12
You’ve heard of the Great Resignation. The Big Quit. As Andrea Hsu wrote, “Many [people] are rethinking what work means to them, how they are valued, and how they spend their time.” Hsu, like most others, attributed the Great Resignation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe the pandemic was the proximate cause; the trigger. But take 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 pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but 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.
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com