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Wigs
When it’s fifteen degrees Fahrenheit below zero, anybody venturing out would be wise to wear a hat. If they can’t find a hat — or if hats are not a fashion statement they’re comfortable with — a wig might be an alternative. After all, in many ways a wig is very much like a hat. Continue reading
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Dingbat
Before emoji existed — in fact before the Unicode standard that makes emojis possible existed — in fact before computers existed — if you needed to include an ornament or symbol in something printed, you might use a “dingbat”. ✰, ✔︎, and ☞ are dingbats. Things like these: ❀ ✾ are generally called dingbats too, Continue reading
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February 22
February 22 boasts a motley crew of historically unique people all born on this day. First of all, recall that a few centuries ago rulers were often known by their given name and some appropriate adjective, like Ivan the Terrible or Homer the Inept. Possibly the weirdest adjective of all is appled to Ladislaus the Continue reading
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Does it take gumption to be highfalutin?
The 19th century produced a great many new English words from popular speech or slang. You might be able to get a handle on general attitudes in the US population around 1850 by studying the words that arose because, evidently, people needed them. There was certainly a healthy disrespect for pompous, overly wordy talk, not Continue reading
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What about ratnapped?
You’ve got your kidnapping and dognapping that have to do with capturing either people or dogs. But then you come to catnapping and it means sleeping — except that in 1983 the London Daily Telegraph used it more like kidnapping: “Mr Smith..suggested that Tilley may have been ‘cat-napped’.” Power napping is definitely sleep. But some Continue reading
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February 21
February 21 is International Mother Language Day. It was begun by UNESCO in 1999. UNESCO is the agency of the United Nations working toward worldwide cooperation in culture, art, and science. The day was adopted by the wider United Nations community in 2002. It’s not the kind of holiday where you receive greeting cards, and Continue reading
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Francis Ronalds
It takes a long time between inception and application. What I mean is that a process or machine that becomes ubiquitous and influential in one era often turns out to have been invented years or decades earlier — often so long back that the original inventor is relatively forgotten in favor of the popularizer of Continue reading
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Putting the Caret before the Hedera
It’s a somewhat puzzling state of affairs. There are quite a few characters and symbols we routinely use in addition to the regular alphabet; things like “@,” “#,” and even the common “*.” These commonly used symbols don’t have consistent names. But there are also many other characters and symbols that are only in use Continue reading
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Butter and hop
You might do something wrong but then get away scot free, able to hopscotch your way home to Scotland enjoy some butterscotch. Scotland, of course, is the nation north of England. But the other scot references there have nothing to do with the place or the people. “Scot free” comes from an old Scandanavian word, Continue reading
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February 20
Tired of the raging, highly contagious disease, a town passed an ordinance requiring adults over 21 to get vaccinated. The process was free, and there was a fine for noncompliance. A religious leader in the town, a pastor who had emigrated from abroad with his family, objected. He had seen forced vaccinations in his old 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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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com