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Born today (by coincidence)
In 1906, Fei Mu was born in Shanghai, China. He grew up to be a movie director, and and made the 1948 movie Spring in a Small Town. It’s been declared the greatest Chinese movie ever made. On Fei Mu’s 18th birthday, Ed Wood was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in the US. He grew Continue reading
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October 10 – A Day that will Live in Coincidence
In one of those odd coincidences that we manufacture all the time (because it’s not a coincidence until somebody says “gee, that’s an odd coincidence”), October 10 in 1914, 1915, and 1917 is the birthday of three famous jazz/R&B musicians: Ivory Joe Hunter, Harry Edison, and Thelonious Monk, in that order. Ivory Joe Hunter — Continue reading
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Then there were four
Here are four words that are closely related: “leiotrichous,” “ulotricious,” “cymotrichous,” and “lissotricious.” They were all coined by the same guy: Baron Jean Baptise Geneviéve Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent. He was born in France in 1778, and was an amateur scientist — which, in those days, was the same as “scientist.” He was a geographer Continue reading
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Foudroyant
Horatio Nelson, the famous British admiral, served in the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1700s, before the French Revolution. From 1799 to 1801 his flagship was the HMS Foudroyant. British warships are often named for admirable qualities, like the “HMS Resolute” or “HMS Victory,” and the Foudroyant was no different, even though few people would Continue reading
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Born today: John Lennon
John Lennon was born 83 years ago today in Liverpool, England. His middle name is Winston, after Winston Churchill. His father was in the merchant marine and wasn’t much involved in the family, until when John was 5, his father tried to emigrate to New Zealand, taking his son along. The parents evidently had quite Continue reading
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October 9
October 9, 1701, the Collegiate School was chartered in the colony of Connecticut. The thinking was that Harvard College, which had been around for over 60 years by that time, was getting much too liberal and a new school was needed that would “maintain the Puritan religious orthodoxy.” The school didn’t have a permanent location, Continue reading
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Octoberfuss!
Magpie was sitting on a streetlamp just outside her favorite cafe in town, watching for dropped (or left behind) treats and listening to what the people were talking about. Everyone kept mentioning one thing in particular, and after hearing it for a while Magpie flew off to the forest. She had a new idea to Continue reading
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Born today: Frank Herbert
Science Fiction is a genre that’s getting a great deal of attention of late. There are tons of good science fiction novels to read, and probably more movies in the genre than ever before. But do you know which is the best-selling science-fiction novel of all time? It’s Dune first published in 1965 by Frank Continue reading
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Filibuster
“Gerrymandering” is a political scheme (in the US) so named because of a person: Gerry Mander. Another US political scheme is the “filibuster.” It, too, sounds like it might be named after a person like “Governor Filibuster of Maryland” — but it’s not! “Filibustering” is a peculiar tactic used in the US Senate to delay Continue reading
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October 8
Ken Warby was born in 1939 — not on October 8; he’s not appearing here because of his birthday. It’s because Warby’s boyhood hero was Donald Campbell. To Donald Campbell, the most important thing was speed records — he set speed records (eight of them) for top speeds in cars and boats. He was following 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