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Infandous
The New York Times used to have a blog called “The Lede.” They shut it down around 2014, I think (you might say they “buried” The Lede), but not before the blog resurrected a word from the 1600s by using this headline: “Canada Bars ‘Infandous’ British Politician, Journalists Reach for Dictionaries.” The reporters in question Continue reading
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Poltroon
Literature set in England in the 1700s and 1800s is a good place to find exclamations like “You hare-hearted, milk-livered poltroon!” (1769). It was both a generalized insult and a specific reference to being cowardly. It’s such an apt thing to shout at someone that you still find it in modern works like “Mutiny on the Continue reading
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Born Today: James Lilacs
Things happen pretty fast in the Internet era, and the “old days” really aren’t that long ago. One of the things about the old days of the world wide web was interesting personal websites — constructions by just one person that could be deeply fascinating, and weren’t just links to three other giant websites. One Continue reading
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August 9
August 9, 1899, Pamela Lyndon Goff was born in Queensland, Australia. She grew up to be an actress, and used the stage name “Pamela Lyndon Travers” because her family objected to her acting career. She was pretty good, though, and joined a traveling Shakespearean acting company in Australia. From there she moved to England, and Continue reading
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After the Party
For a long time afterward, the party in the barn was known as “the party in the barn.” Anyone in the forest could say “remember when we went to the party in the barn,” and whoever they were talking to would say “yes, I remember the party in the barn. It was in the barn, Continue reading
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How to become wise
May, 2022 Sometimes there’s a technology that captures our minds so much that it becomes a metaphor for practically everything. The universe — and the mind — seemed like an infinitely complex clockwork back in the days when the mechanisms inside clocks were new and fascinating. The “clockwork universe” showed up around the 1400s, and Continue reading
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Gaberlunzie
If you’re shopping for clothes, one option might be something made of “gabardine.” The dictionary says it’s a “firm, tightly woven fabric of worsted, cotton, polyester, or other fiber, with a twill weave,” which unfortunately does absolutely nothing to ensure that I’d be able to look at a coat and say “oh, that’s made of Continue reading
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Contumely
In modern English, you can usually add “-ly” to a word to use it in a slightly different way. That is, if there’s something you do most of the time — it’s your “usual” practice — then you could also say you do that thing “usually.” This goes back to Old English, except that where Continue reading
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Born Today: Ken Kutaragi
If you like videogames, you’ll be happy to know that today, August 8, is Ken Kutaragi’s birthday; he’s 73. He was working for Sony in their digital research labs in 1989 when he noticed how much his daughter loved playing games on her Nintendo. He tried to get Sony interested in video games, but they Continue reading
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August 8
The Wright Brothers made their first flight on August 8 in 1903. But only five people were there to see it. Their first plane, the Flyer I, only flew that one day, and then a gust of wind flipped it over and wrecked it. All they had was a photograph and the reports of the 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