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Rudolphe Töpffer
One of the most popular genres in print is the comic. Comic strips and graphic novels are available throughout the world. There were invented — or perhaps “pioneered” — by Rudolphe Töpffer, who was born this day in 1799 in Geneva. He’s known as both “the father of comic strips” and the “first comic artist… Continue reading
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Contranyms
An oversight of oversight Having oversight of something means you’re in charge of it, or managing it. It’s a pretty old word, and has been used to mean some form of authority or supervision for centuries. Queen Margaret of Anjou used “oversight” in this way in a letter from about 1421: “Send sum trusty man… Continue reading
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Gone Again
Heading back home from giving Beaver back his book, Raccoon saw Squirrel sitting on the path, tail twitching. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said. “You’ll never guess what I just saw.” “Um…do I have to really guess?” asked Raccoon. “No way,” said Squirrel, “that’s just something to say when you want to let somebody… Continue reading
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Godwottery
Gardens are shut down this time of year, but you’ve got the whole winter to plan to fit out your plot with “Cotswold stone retaining walls; vaguely Spanish wrought iron gates; crazy paving… colored yellow, green, and pink; irregular ponds of pale blue fibreglass fed by streams of impossible source; gnomes, fairies, and animals, usually… Continue reading
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January 30
January 30 I’m not sure how to put this delicately, but if you schedule something to start or end on January 30, you might be surprised, and it might not be pleasant. To start with, let’s have a look at the year 1661 in England. It was a couple years after Oliver Cromwell had passed… Continue reading
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Douglas Engelbart
Right now you’re probably using a mouse with your computer, which has a graphical user interface seen on a bitmapped display. You use the interface to follow hypertext links thanks to your computer being connected to others on a network. All of that stuff comes from “The Mother of All Demos” in 1968. And it… Continue reading
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Sprucify
If you ease the burden of something, you might say that you “lightened” it. If you make something less messy, you’ve “tidied.” But not “tidy-ened.” When you make something easier to understand, you’ve “clarified” — but not “clearened” or “claried.” And for that matter, if you go around your room straightening and correcting things, you’ve… Continue reading
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Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was born January 29, 1860 in the Russian Empire. His father had been a serf, in the medieval sense, but ran a grocery store by the time Anton was born. The family spoke Ukranian as well as Russian at home, and Anton’s mother was said to be an excellent storyteller who entertained all… Continue reading
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January 29
Today is the day, in 1980, that the Rubik’s Cube was introduced to the world. By the end of the year, it seemed like everybody had one. It was a full-fledged craze. The best-selling book just the next year was about solving it. By 1982 there was a world championship in cube-solving. The thing was,… Continue reading
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White dog privilege
“You know,” said Dog, “you folks who live in the forest have a pretty nice setup. It must be really relaxing.” “How do you mean?” asked Hare. “I thought you and Ferret were the ones who had all the best of everything.” “Oh, sure, I’m not saying there aren’t perks,” said Dog, “but they come… 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
- It would be much more efficient…
- Step back to add perspective
- They’ll just say anything at all
- Educational Trip
- Yeah but what about the Jewish Space Lasers?
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
Quotations
Resistance
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Tales from the Forest
Technicalities
Tragedy
Unanticipated Consequences
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com