-
Minions’ opinions?
Keith Olbermann has a fascinating take on the whole SignalGate episode: “The reason Trump’s Team of Idiot Rivals sent each other their war plans on Signal wasn’t to keep them secret from the Senate, or from future investigations it was to keep them secret from TRUMP.” He goes on to suggest that“There WAS a work-around… Continue reading
-
Downtown
Paul Krugman’s latest piece is about New York City. He spent some time there this week, and among personal observations, points out that: “New York is looking pretty good right now. Housing is still unaffordable; the failure to build enough housing, not an imaginary crime wave, is the city’s biggest problem. But dire predictions during… Continue reading
-
Inept, faithless, and arrogant
Steve Schmidt put it eloquently: “Donald Trump’s national security team has been exposed — and permanently unmasked — as moral degenerates. They are incompetent clowns, who beggar description because they stand peerless in the entire history of America as singularly inept, faithless and arrogant. Michael Waltz, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Stephen… Continue reading
-
This word is word
“Autology” is a word that was fairly rare even when it was in use back in the 1600s. It meant self-knowledge, or the study of oneself. Some years later there was also the form “autological” for referring to things having to do with autology. Since Freud didn’t happen across the word, it probably would have… Continue reading
-
Max and me
Max McCoy is a journalist from Kansas; you can check out his excellent work at the Kansas Reflector. I visited my favorite book store over the weekend and picked up a couple of volumes I’ve been looking forward to. I put one of them on my desk, just in front of my display, and opened… Continue reading
-
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
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
-
Alias Smith and Jones
Most people, at least in western cultures, have something in common with super heroes. No, it’s not the obvious thing you’re thinking (you immediately focused on your ability to deliver a wry quip while vanquishing a super villain, I assume). It’s all in your name. In the English tradition — or I suppose the tradition… Continue reading
-
Cool!
English has loads and loads of pretentious, stuffy, and even bureaucratic words. But it also has some nifty ones. Like “nifty.” “Nifty” is a casual word for casual use, and it tends to be used in close connection with other casual words. According to the corpus of contemporary American English, the words most often found… Continue reading
-
Gentle there, sailor
Nautical affairs have contributed a huge number of words to English over the centuries. If you define “nautical affairs” broadly enough, that would include ships, sailors’ jargon, and even books and stories set in seagoing contexts. Patrick O’Brian wrote historical novels set on 18th century British naval ships, so his works certainly qualify. The books… 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. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Recent Posts
- It’s not just the cursed repubs
- At least “annoying” isn’t too hard to spell
- 19 and 20 and 25
- Annexing the whole assemblage
- The century wheel spins and returns to position
Visitation
Research Results
i.webthings.hub
Full Moon Fiber Art
Scripting News
Balloon Juice
Empty Wheel
Kansas Reflector
Bedlam Farm Journal
Krugman Wonks Out
Daring Fireball
[citation needed]
Pluralistic
Cornerstone of Democracy
Whatever
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.