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Honkytonk
In February, 1900, the Evening Gazette in Reno, Nevada, explained the origin of the term “honkytonk:” “Every child of the range can tell what honkatonk means and where it came from. Away, away back in the very early days, so the story goes, a party of cow punchers rode out from camp at sundown in… Continue reading
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Beatrice Shilling
If you’re going to power an airplane with an internal combustion engine, you’re going to have some obstacles to overcome. This is particularly true when the airplane is designed to do aerobatic moves rather than just fly straight and level. In some maneuvers the airplane will experience “negative-g” — that is, it will be effectively… Continue reading
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March 8, International Women’s Day
Today is March 8, International Women’s Day. It has a longer and more diverse history than you might expect. Let’s have a look. The very first Women’s Day (that we know of) was called National Woman’s Day, and it was February 28, 1909! I bet you didn’t see that year coming. It wasn’t a calm… Continue reading
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Villain
The Latin word “villa” moved into Italian, and more recently into English, unchanged. In Latin it meant a farmhouse or country house, and still does, even in English. But coming from outside the city isn’t always regarded as a good thing. Just as the middle of the US is sometimes called “flyover country,” good only… Continue reading
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Spriten
English is a constantly changing mess of new words being borrowed and invented and existing words falling into disuse and obsolescence. With that going on for so long, it’s no wonder that some pretty good words have fallen out of use. One word that hasn’t been seen in centuries, and might be a good candidate… Continue reading
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Frances Elizabeth Snyder
Imagine that you managed to qualify for and enroll in a top university despite all sorts of obstacles having been put in your way. You attend your first class, in a specialty you’re very talented in: math. And there, in your first class, on your first day, your professor asks you if you wouldn’t be… Continue reading
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March 7
Thomas Kuhn was a philosopher of science whose signature work was The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1962. One thing that book did was introduce the phrase “paradigm shift,” which became annoyingly overused (but thankfully, I don’t hear it quite as often recently, even in those language-mangling arenas, corporate conference rooms). The other thing… Continue reading
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Dumbledore
Just about everybody remembers the name “Albus Dumbledore;” Harry Potter’s headmaster in magic school. You’ll find his name in all of the Harry Potter books. But you’ll also find “dumbledore” in the dictionary. Maybe J. K. Rowling chose the name “Dumbledore” because she thought the word deserved more notice. Back in 1799 John Robberds certainly… Continue reading
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March 6; more birthdays
March 6 Today is Michelangelo’s birthday. He’d be well over 500. If it were really possible to live to that kind of age, could anyone sustain their creative output over such a long period? Everybody knows him as simply Michelangelo, although his full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. He’s known as one of… 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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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com