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1925
The year nineteen hundred and twenty-five is interesting for a few reasons. In the world of art, 1925 was the year that the Paris exposition “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” opened, which nowadays is agreed to have been the beginnings of Art Deco. Literature saw the publication of Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Continue reading
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A base in your face
“You can’t fool me, Raccoon,” said Dog. “There are not that many numbers.” “Yes there are,” insisted Raccoon. “There are more numbers than one, two, three, and ‘a lot’, Dog.” “Are not,” said Dog, laying back down in the grass. “I’ll prove it,” said Raccoon. “Look here, Dog, I’ll make some marks in the dirt. Continue reading
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Addict
The medical community sometimes tries to suggest that “addiction” should be limited to its clinical sense — that is, it’s not helpful to a discussion of physical addiction to, say, opiates, if it’s also common to say things like “I love chocolate; I’m really addicted,” or “I’m addicted to that new coffee shop.” As almost Continue reading
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Walter Morrison
If you ever have fun tossing around a flying disc, or play Ultimate Frisbee or Frisbee Golf, you’ll be glad to know that today is the day that Walter Morrison was born in the US in 1920. In 1937, Morrison and his girlfriend Lucile were tossing back and forth a metal lid from a large Continue reading
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Awfully awesome
Here’s a pair of words that have diverged in meaning: “awful” and “awesome.” When you say something is “awful,” you mean it’s bad. I’m not going out today; the weather is awful. But “awesome” is good. Let’s go out and enjoy the awesome weather. Of the two words, “awful” is the older one, dating back Continue reading
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Girdles Incompleteness Theorem
Porcupine proudly held up what looked like a piece of cloth. “Look at this,” she said, “I made it myself!” Hare, Dog, and Magpie nodded appreciatively. “How’d you make it?” asked Magpie. “Knitting!” said Porcupine. “Beaver lent me a book with instructions. In the book they use things called ‘needles’, but I just use a Continue reading
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Network
An interesting way to look at dictionary definitions is to look at the definition by itself and see whether you can figure out the word it’s attempting to define. For example, if you see “any one of the berries, growing in clusters on a vine, and from the juice of which wine is made,” you Continue reading
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nɒǫiɿɿoƆ yɒW-ǫnoɿW
On this day in 1907, Clyde Groce Corrigan was born in Texas in the US. When he was a child, the family moved house several times, and his parents finally divorced — after that he lived with his mother, sister, and brother in Los Angeles. He quit school without graduating, and worked in construction. When Continue reading
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September 22
January 22 is a date with some interesting juxtapositions, and some fascinating coincidences. Maybe the most notable juxtaposition happened in 1879, in Africa. The Anglo-Zulu war was in progress. It’s not one of the conflicts you’ve probably heard of, but it was fought between the British Empire (which you’ve heard of) and the Zulu Empire Continue reading
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Rules are Rules and Rocks are…um
“Ferret, why did you just spit on the ground?” asked Hare. “I had no choice,” said Ferret, “I had to do it.” “What do you mean you had no choice? It’s a deliberate thing, spitting on the ground like that. And it’s rude,” said Hare, who was slightly offended. “It’s Raccoon’s fault,” said Ferret. “She 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