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Baseball or rounders?
“Baseball” has a long history in the US, and like most things with a long history, there are plenty of myths, legends, and commonly held beliefs. For instance, you can find references to baseball being invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday. You can also learn that baseball was invented in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright. With… Continue reading
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Orismology
Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist in the 1700s who invented the modern system of classifying and naming organisms. It’s thanks to him that we can not only call a hedgehog a hedgehog, but also identify it as a mammal in the family “erinaceinae.” And likewise with virtually every plant and animal on earth. Linnaeus… Continue reading
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October 30
Angelo Siciliano was born on October 30, 1892 in Acri, Italy. When he was 11, his family emigrated to the US and settled in Brooklyn, where, not to be too blunt about it, Angelo got beat up a lot. He was a scrawny little kid and easy for the bullies to pick on. In his… Continue reading
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Thelemic
François Rabelias was a Renaissance man in fifteenth-century France. That is, not only did he actually live during the French Renaissance, but he also pursued the multiple careers expected of somebody we would today label a “Renaissance man.” He was a writer, a doctor, a monk, and, although they didn’t really have the label at… Continue reading
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October 29
It’s only two days until Halloween, which primes our psyches for tales of witchcraft and ghosts. But nowadays most of us (at least around here) see these things in a lighthearted way. It hasn’t always been that way. Witchcraft — even though people weren’t all that sure what it was — was something you could… Continue reading
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Stories
It was cold in the forest. Everyone had grown their winter fur, except for the birds, who were always explaining how feathers were so much better than fur. Even so, the birds admitted it was cold. Beaver’s pond was frozen over, and he had to come out three times every day to break enough ice… Continue reading
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Bissextile (not)
The ancient Romans were pretty good at some things, like roads, aqueducts, and long-lasting political systems, but their calendar (or calendars) were nothing we’d want to emulate. They divided the year into months, like we do, but possibly because of that unwieldy numbering system they had (out of all the systems that have been developed,… Continue reading
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Forsoothery
Methinks ye belike have encountered some of these words of yore; the ilke of which whilom were found in common service, Verily today we find them nigh vanished and nowise spoken any more. Natheless these obsolete terms mayhap find a meet abode in fiction, if you hark to it. I’d be fain indeed to see… Continue reading
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October 28
The best response to discovering you’ve awakened on October 28 is to shout “Yahoo!” Since you just woke up, of course, you might first need to clear your throat by going “houyhnhnm” a couple of times. When you settle down with some coffee and check the morning business news, take note of that startup company… Continue reading
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A tinge of hue
It’s autumn, the leaves in New England are spectacular, and it’s probably time to brush up on your color vocabulary. After all, anybody can say “look, a purple cow” — but why do that when you can call it “aubergine”? Or if the cow is blue, how about “azuline”? There are loads of available English… 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
- How much is that doggie in the window?
- Hang on, I’m busy
- Sometimes it’s not an improvement
- Do not call your friend…
- Once more, into the breach
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