-
Cacoethes scribendi?
An unpleasant, disharmonious noise is called “cacophony”. Although that’s the only word in its family that most people are familiar with, there exists a whole family of English words that (1) mean something unpleasant, and (2) begin with “cac-“. The prefix is pretty straightforward; it comes from the Greek word “kakos” (bad). Most, but not… Continue reading
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
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!
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com