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Umbra
The Latin word for shadow is “umbra,” and it shows up a number of places in English. The first place it shows up, although maybe not the first place people nowadays would think of, is the actual English word “umbra.” It’s not necessarily a literal shadow; one usage of “umbra” means ghost — either a… Continue reading
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Born today: The Great Blackstone
In the US during the 1800s and into the 20th Century, a popular form of entertainment was the traveling magic show. These were much more than just a lone magician with a top hat an a rabbit; they had a whole cast of assistants, roadies, and large stage illusions. Some of the magicians were nearly… Continue reading
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September 27
Google currently says that September 27, 1998 marks the birth of its search engine. That’s not what they’ve always said, though. It’s not the day they registered their domain name, google.com — that was September 15, 1997. It’s not the day the company was incorporated either. That was September 4, 1998. It’s not the day… Continue reading
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Geese, Temporarily
It was the honking that woke Hare up. The loud, annoyed, and annoying honking of the geese in the meadow just outside his tree. Hare made a mug of tea and went outside. “Good morning,” said Hare to the geese. He was a bit surprised that it took just four geese to make all that… Continue reading
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Abecedarian
In his 1985 book “The Superior Person’s Book of Words”, Peter Bowler includes this example of an insult: “Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic, jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial, papuliferous, quisquilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous, ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte.” As you’ve probably noticed, that sentence is… Continue reading
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Padania
Thanks mostly to air travel, it’s not unusual to meet a Brazilian, or a Pakistani or even a Canadian. You may have even met a Padanian. But you won’t find Padania on a map, in an atlas, or in the United Nations. That’s because it’s the name of a nation that doesn’t exist, but people… Continue reading
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Born today: Robert Cade
When you’ve been out for a run, a bike ride, a sports game, or a walk you might need something to drink. Water is effective, of course, but it’s actually not the best because while it replaces some of what your body loses in perspiration, it doesn’t have electrolytes. Robert Cade, a physician in Florida… Continue reading
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September 26
Today’s September 26, the day FBI agents became known as “G-Men.” it was all thanks to Machine Gun Kelly, who surrendered by yelling “Don’t shoot, G-Men” when they raided his hideout in Memphis. It didn’t really happen that way, though. The official reports from the raid itself said that Kelly was found standing in a… Continue reading
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A Party
Before the Barn Party “It’s going to be a big party,” Barney the Owl assured Hare. “You should all come.” “It’s on Saturday?” asked Hare. “That’s right, it’ll last all day,” said Barney. “Hope everyone from the forest can come, Hare.” With that, Barney flew away. Hare hopped out to let everyone in the forest… Continue reading
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Collops
How about some breakfast? After a good eight or so hours of sleep, many people are ready to pull up a chair to the groaning board for a surfeit of collops. Er, that is, many people are ready to sit at the dining room table to eat a good breakfast of bacon and eggs. “Collops”… 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 other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity. You can also find some of my minor software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly write tiny utilities in Python.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com