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A model replica
Popular souvenirs of major cities, like New York or Paris, are handheld versions of famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty (both, by the way, the products of Gustave Eiffel). But are these things “models” or “replicas?” “Replica” is a word borrowed from Italian sometime in the 1500s, and its… Continue reading
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Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny, who was first seen in the 1930s, has since appeared in more movies than any other cartoon character. If you make a list of all the “movie personalities” in the world, including both cartoons and humans (and, I suppose, animals like Lassie), Bugs is ninth on the list in terms of most-often seen… Continue reading
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January 24
A lot of things happen over and over in history. There were violent sports well before American football came along. One example, from centuries ago in Europe, would be jousting. American football is a sport of plutocrats, at least at its professional level. Team owners tend to be billionaires, and star players become millionaires, often… Continue reading
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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
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
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com