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Born Today: Charlotte Fowler Wells
The history of science is pretty interesting; all sorts of discoveries — and entire fields of study — have flourished, only to be eventually disproven. This is still going on; just look at the news in the past few weeks about a “room-temperature superconductor,” or think back a few years to “cold fusion.” Charlotte Fowler… Continue reading
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August 14
You never know — it might have been a dark and stormy night on August 14, 1975. A young couple, whose names were not Janet or Brad, might have been driving on King’s Road in London when one of their tires went flat. No mobile phones in those days, so they went in search of… Continue reading
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Cheshire Cat
One of the (many) oddball characters in Alice in Wonderland is the Cheshire Cat. He doesn’t really do much in the story besides grin, and then gradually disappear (except for his grin). Have you ever wondered why a grinning feline would be called a “Cheshire Cat”? Lewis Carroll could have just invented it — he… Continue reading
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Sewers
It would be pretty unlikely to find a sewer in a sewer, and although a sewer might work in a sewer’s vicinity, if the sewer malfunctioned or ceased working altogether the sewer would almost certainly move to a new location a comfortable distance from the sewer. What we have there is a perfectly good sentence,… Continue reading
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August 13
August 13 is the most sinister of days — it’s International Lefthanders Day. Somewhere around ten percent of the people in the world are left-handed, and for some reason, men are somewhat more likely to be left handed than women. The word “sinister” came from Latin, where it originally meant left-handed — but even then… Continue reading
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Eating Your Words
Dog and Ferret were due in Hare’s meadow, along with the rest of the guests, at about noon. Squirrel and Raccoon were helping Hare get everything ready for Sunday Brunch. Magpie, was watching from a low branch in Hare’s oak tree and explaining — the whole event had been her idea. “Tell me again, why… Continue reading
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Vinegar
As liquids used in cooking go, vinegar is not particularly remarkable. It’s basically diluted acetic acid. The interesting aspect of vinegar is the enormous variety of ways you can make it. The word “vinegar” came originally from Old French (“van egre”) in the early 1300s. One of the oldest surviving mentions of “vinegar” is from… Continue reading
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August 12
It’s August 12, the “Glorious Twelfth” in England, where it’s the opening day of grouse hunting season. Except if the 12th falls on a Sunday, they open the season on Monday because it’s illegal to shoot birds on Sundays there. It’s not clear to me whether Sundays are okay for shooting things other than birds.… Continue reading
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Acorn Caps
Beaver was introducing Goose to Porcupine, Hedgehog, Squirrel, and Raccoon. Those four met at Porcupine’s house every Tuesday to play Acorn Caps, a game they loved, but that they couldn’t get anyone else to play. Not even Otter or Muskrat, who loved games. “Goose is just visiting,” said Beaver. “She stopped in my pond on… 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
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