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February 16
Imagine, if you will, that it’s 1923. We’re in northern Africa, in the unforgiving Sahara. We’ve joined the work party directed by Howard Carter in the Valley of Kings. There’s excitement in the air. Now that the Great War is over, Carter’s work is once again being underwritten by Lord Carnarvon. Carnarvon is an enormously Continue reading
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Humicubation
When the weather is unusually cold, there’s flooding, or possibly an invasion of annoyed ferrets looms, humicubation is not advisable, particularly for extended periods. “Humicubation,” as you probably haven’t guessed, means “lying on the ground.” The word first appeared in the 1650s in a religious tract written by the Bishop of Derry in Ireland. He Continue reading
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Douglas R. Hofstadter
Good morning! Today the world’s only self-declared pilingual person turns 78. A (or the) pilingual person has concluded that their degree of mastery of languages comes to 3.14159… And their name is Douglas R. Hoftstadter. Hofstadter was born in New York City, and grew up in California when his family moved because his father, physicist Continue reading
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Piker
Somebody who hates spending any money and tries to hold onto it forever might be called a “miser,” a “cheapskate,” or a “piker.” That last one, “piker,” has an interesting history, and more than one origin story. “Piker” was first used in the 1500s, and didn’t have anything to do with money at all — Continue reading
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February 15
February 15 is a date that’s not divisible by two or ten, which is slightly weird when you look into what’s happened on various February fifteenths. It was February 15 in 1945 that ENIAC was formally introduced as the world’s first programmable digital computer that functioned electronically. The name ENIAC stood for “Electronic Numerical Integrator Continue reading
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Pure Fabrication
English has quite a few words for different types of fabric, and many of them have pretty interesting and mysterious origins. Take “corduroy,” for example. It’s a kind of thick cloth with ridges. It’s generally used in colder weather, because it does a pretty good job of insulating. Depending on the sources you use, you Continue reading
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No dessert for me, thanks
“‘He has got his deserts’, said Joconda.” Jaconda said that in an 1882 novel by someone with the pen name “Ouida.” Both the novel and the writer (whose real name was Maria Louise Ramé) are not much remembered now, but the phrase “got his deserts” or “got his just deserts” is still around. The phrase is Continue reading
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Christopher Latham Sholes
On the off chance that you ever use a computer keyboard, you may be either glad or annoyed that today is the birthday of Christopher Latham Sholes, who invented the QWERTY keyboard. Sholes invented the keyboard as part of the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, which he invented, along with Carlos Glidden, in the late 1860s. Continue reading
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February 14
Today is the anniversary of a very important photo. It was taken February 14, 1990, and it’s a landscape. In fact it’s the landscape, in a way. It’s the the Pale Blue Dot photo, taken by Voyager 1 from nearly 4 billion miles away. It’s called the Pale Blue Dot because that’s all there is Continue reading
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Indefinite Hyperbolic Numerology
When you want to talk about a whole lot of something, but not an actual, specific number, or even an actual range, you might use a word like “zillion,” or “umpteen,” “skillion,” or “jillion.” Nowadays these “indefinite hyperbolic numerals” are used pretty much interchangeably and there isn’t much variation in which ones you tend to 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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