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Nasty Suicide
Today is the birthday of…I’m not making this up…Nasty Suicide. Nasty is a Finnish musician who was one of the cofounders of Hanoi Rocks, in 1979. That band broke up in 1985, and Suicide formed The Suicide Twins with Andy McCoy, and at the same time founded The Cherry Bombz. You may be surprised to Continue reading
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Idiolects, acrolects, and isolects, oh my!
A question that often comes up when discussing unusual words is whether a word is a “real” word. There isn’t a pat answer in English, since there’s nobody in charge to decide which words are and aren’t real. One big hurdle is “being in the dictionary,” but that’s a pretty gray area too. There are Continue reading
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A rose by any other name?
William Shakespeare wasn’t the only well known and influential dramatist in Elizabethan England. There was also Christopher (Kit) Marlowe, who was baptized February 26, 1564 in Canterbury, England. Marlowe and Shakespeare were baptized the same year, and it’s assumed that they were born shortly before being baptized, since that was the custom at the time. Continue reading
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Flash
Dog was visiting the barn when she met someone new. “Hi,” said the someone, “I’m Flash. Just arrived. I’m the new barn cat.” “Oh hi,” said Dog. She was surprised that Flash introduced himself with a human-sounding name instead of “Cat.” “Do you live in the farmhouse?” asked Dog. She knew that cats usually lived Continue reading
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Don’t believe a word of it
It seems pretty common, nowadays, to believe that people in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat Modern depictions of Christopher Columbus often touch on the idea, either by implication or by arguing loudly, as in Hare We Go, the 1951 Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs sails with Columbus, who had argued with Continue reading
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February 25
In light of the new European war, instigated by Russian aggression, there are some eerie coincidences in the history of February 25. Have a look at some of them. With the Treaty of Moscow in May, 1920, Russia formally recognized the Democratic Republic of Georgia. That part of the world had in the past been Continue reading
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Glom onto this
If you “glom” something, or “glom onto” it, you’re taking it or occupying it. Although it sounds like a slang term, you can find it published in newspapers, magazines, and even Science Daily: “The nanoparticles ‘glom onto the flies,’ Rand noted while watching a video of flies in the test tubes.” Not only is “glom” Continue reading
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February 24
If you visit the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, home of the Hayden Planetarium, you might also be interested in the exhibit called The Cosmic Pathway. It’s a very long (360 feet) spiral with signs and points of interest that represent the entire history of the universe, which is about Continue reading
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Success Lies Beyond the Velleity Veil
If you know somebody who’s always talked about visiting, say, Alaska or Paris but never actually makes plans to go there, or somebody who tends to accumulate too much stuff in their house and is always right on the cusp of getting the clutter organized, you know somebody engages in “velleity.” “Velleity” is more obscure 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.
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peterharbeson@me.com