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Grapevine
Whether you’ve heard “Heard it Through the Grapevine” or not, you’ve probably heard of hearing through the grapevine, and you’ve probably heard things through the grapevine. But have you ever heard why you’d hear things through a grapevine in the first place? “The grapevine”, as a metaphor for people passing information individually, one-by-one, dates back… Continue reading
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Born Today: Parker & Parsai
I’m not entirely sure today is really August 22; it could be some sort of satirical comment on the month of August or the number 2. I can’t quite figure out which, but here’s my evidence: not one, but two famous satirical writers were born this day, many years apart, on different continents. The American… Continue reading
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August 22
Today is the 159th anniversary of the first time a yacht owned by some really rich guy beat a yacht owned by another really rich guy in a race to win the America’s Cup. Except they didn’t really win the America’s Cup, because at the time it was called the “R.Y.S. One Hundred Sovereign Cup.”… Continue reading
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Barnstorming
Sometimes you’ll see a story about some person or group “barnstorming”, which means touring around an area — possibly the whole US — making brief stops for whatever their specialty happens to be. A band could hold a barnstorming concert tour; a political candidate could barnstorm around giving speeches, and so forth. If you look… Continue reading
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Cahoots
“She was in cahoots with a doctor.” That’s a line from “Murder Must Wait,” a 1953 detective novel. It’s a pretty typical line; I don’t know how many novels in the crime fiction genre include “…in cahoots with…” but I bet it’s in the hundreds, at least. Being “in cahoots” with somebody means partnering with them, with… Continue reading
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Born Today: William Murdoch
If you lived two or three centuries ago, you mostly lived in the dark. I don’t mean metaphorically; candles don’t produce much illumination, and in those days they were pretty expensive. There weren’t very many alternatives, either. Luckily for people who liked to stay up late or read at night, William Murdoch was born on… Continue reading
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August 21
When you fill out an online form with your postal location information, one of the choices in the “country” dropdown menu is “United States Outlying Islands.” Ever wonder about those? One of them was discovered today, August 21, in 1821. Jarvis Island is a tiny coral island that’s really, totally, I’m not kidding, in the… Continue reading
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Born Today: Henry Every, King of the Pirates
It might be a bit unusual for someone to be remembered for centuries for events in just a brief period of their life. In the case of Henry Every, who was (probably) born August 20, 1656, (probably) in an English village a bit north of Devon. He may have been related to the Every family… 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
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Chocolatiana
Essays
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Immorality
Incompetence
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Tales from the Forest
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com