-
Born today: Chevalier/Chevalière d’Éon
You’re not going to believe the full name(s) of the person born today in 1728: Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont OR Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Augusta-Andréa-Timothéa d’Éon de Beaumont. Ze is usually known as either the Chevalier d’Éon or the Chevalière d’Éon. It’s a pretty good story. d’Éon was born in a hotel in France into a poor family. At least so we think Continue reading
-
October 5, World Teachers’ Day
The most important thing about October 5 is that it’s World Teacher’s Day. It was first declared in 1994 by UNESCO (that’s the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund — the E used to stand for “Emergency”, but now it doesn’t) and the ILO (that’s the International Labor Organization, Continue reading
-
The Race (part 2)
(Here is part 1, which was published second) Raccoon and Hare had good seats for the race. Otter and Muskrat were right in front of them, and Beaver had come over after checking the race course he’d built. “How did you build all the streams and ponds, Beaver?” asked Raccoon. “Oh, it’s just the usual Continue reading
-
Blame the dezynurz
English is probably the worst of all modern languages in terms of inconsistent spelling. In many languages words are simply written the way they sound. In Italian and Spanish it’s considered so simple there isn’t even a word for “spelling.” But in English, a sound can be represented all sorts of ways. The vowel sound Continue reading
-
Hypnopompic
When you’re just waking up, you’re often in a unique mental state. You’re still half asleep, and whatever nutty thing you were just dreaming about is starting to slip away, but for a little while it still makes a kind of sense. There’s also a mental state you might enter as you fall asleep; you’re Continue reading
-
Born today: Edward Stratemeyer
A professional author is generally considered prolific if they publish, say, 20 or more books. They’re generally considered popular if they sell, say, 2 or 3 million. But Edward Stratemeyer, who was born October 4, 1862, did just a little bit better than that. He published over 1300 books that sold over 500 million copies. Continue reading
-
October 4: Where are your cinnamon buns?
In these upsetting and degrading times, many people around the world think about escaping the ills of their own countries and emigrating to another. Even here in the US, people are thinking about moving to, in large part, Canada. Even though at the moment US citizens may not be all that welcome in Canada. But Continue reading
-
Deflocculate
A couple of thousand years ago, while some Romans were debating in Senate proceedings, others were busily conquering whatever nation they stumbled into, and still others were creating a form of concrete that’s vastly more durable than anything we know how to make today (Roman concrete — no steel reinforcement involved — has withstood seawater Continue reading
-
Bowdlerized
Some people think that a text — a book of fiction, for example, or the script for a play — is one complete thing, and that each constituent part, whether it’s a passage or just a single word, must be left as-is or the message and nature of the whole is changed. Others think of Continue reading
-
Born today: John Perry Barlow
One oddity of the very odd US educational system is that top universities try to diversify their student populations in countless ways, including applicants’ locations. That’s not necessarily strange at all, except that in practice, if you’re a mediocre high school student from Wyoming, the least populated US state, you have a far better chance 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.
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com