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Reimagining
As an artifact of the 20th Century, the VW Beetle is many things — iconic, beloved, remembered, and weird. It started out as an idea sponsored by, of all people, Adolf Hitler (who is iconic and remembered but not beloved). It was a “car for the people”, which is even where the name “Volkswagen” comes Continue reading
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Something for Nothing. Super!
July 2022 Most glass beverage bottles nowadays are molded with screw threads so you can twist the metal cap off with your fingers. But some — particularly beer bottles — still come with metal caps crimped onto the top. Those caps have a name: they’re “crown corks.” They were invented in 1892 in Baltimore, and Continue reading
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Icarus Squirrel
Magpie was perched on the back of a chair outside her favorite cafe in the town when she noticed several members of the Wren family in the park across the street. She flew over to say hello. “Hello, Anna, hi Bob,” said Magpie. “And is that Clarissa? You’ve gotten so big since I last saw Continue reading
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Desire
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” October, 2022 Desire is a lot of things. One of those things is Bob Dylan’s 1975 album, which doesn’t have any of my favorite songs, but — unusually for me, at least — somehow hangs together as a collection that’s somewhat more than just the individual Continue reading
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Embiggen is perfectly cromulent
Words come from lots of different sources, and these sources change over time. Many sources came to exist because of events — for instance, when the Normans invaded England a thousand years ago it proved to be a source of countless new English words. Some sources are slower and have more to do with migration Continue reading
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Back in the Day: July 30
After WWII, there was something of a recognition in western culture that the world had gotten a great deal more organized — administratively organized — than it had been before. Time Magazine called it “the widespread 20th century malady — galloping orgsmanship.” It was as if the vast mobilization for the war somehow convinced everyone that Continue reading
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Back in the Day: July 29
With so many people working at home and meeting over videoconferences, kids have taken a more prominent role. Maybe not as prominent as some kids in the history of July 29, though. Take the year 238 in Rome. It was July 29 when the Praetorian Guard — the secret police of the Roman Emperors (think Continue reading
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Bad
Like the word “good”, “bad” has a very long history. Nobody knows quite where it came from. If it existed in Old English, it didn’t have exactly the same form, but there are several OE words that it MIGHT have come from. The first is not exactly a “word” at all; it’s the name “Badda.” 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