-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Michelangelo
Good morning! Some artists become so famous and their work so well known that it gets hard to still imagine them as real people. Like, with birthdays and everything. Nevertheless, today is Michelangelo’s birthday. His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, and he was born in the Republic of Florence in 1475, in… Continue reading
-
Dora Marsden
Dora Marsden was born March 5, 1882 in Yorkshire, England. Her family was relatively poor, and her father and eldest brother emigrated to the US in 1890 to seek better economic fortunes. But Marsden and her mother stayed in England. She was able to attend school, mostly thanks to an 1870 English law that provided… Continue reading
-
Lipogram
“This is a lipogram – a book, paragraph or similar thing in writing that lacks a symbol, particularly (but not always) that symbol fifth in rank out of our 26 script-signs (found amidst ‘d’ and ‘f’), which stands for a sound such as that in ‘kiwi’. I won’t bring it up right now, to avoid… Continue reading
-
Mango that mango
According to some people, if you travel to the midwestern US, point to a bell pepper, and ask a local resident what it is, they’re likely to tell you that it’s a “mango.” Then if you point to a mango, the same resident will call it… a “mango.” This odd situation, which is evidently true,… 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 newsletter, Artisanal Scribbles, where I’m grappling with writing, authentic human authorship, integrity, and the craft of beauty in the AI age. You can also find some of my old software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly wrote tiny utilities in Python and shell scripts. I’m mostly retired from coding nowadays.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
Recent Posts
- The True Chew
- The Cycles within the Arc
- I’d rather have a taco
- 20-something Hubris
- You can’t be a leader without followers
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
Quotations
Resistance
Stories
Tales from the Forest
Technicalities
Tragedy
Unanticipated Consequences
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com