Pylimitics

"Simplicity" rearranged

  • Isabel Briggs-Meyers

    Let’s say that you’re alive in the US in about 1942 and you read a magazine article about how some people seem to “fit” particular jobs better than others. You’re thinking about your country is preparing to send troops to war in various places in the world, and you have the idea that if only… Continue reading

  • Tautochrone

    Imagine you want to build a clock, but annoyingly enough, you find yourself stuck several centuries in the past, and you don’t really know how to start. The first thing you need is something that “ticks” in a reliably steady cadence. Enter the pendulum. Pendulums swing back and forth pretty steadily. Pendulums started being used… Continue reading

  • October 18

    The small groups of people who see themselves as in charge of larger groups of people — bosses of workers, say — generally don’t like the idea of the people who are supposed to be “under their control” getting more ability to control things for themselves. One way workers can achieve more agency is through… Continue reading

  • Piketty dispels more BS

    The very wealthy don’t, as a rule, pay taxes. If they do, it’s at a rate far lower than the rest of us. And whenever the question of taxing the very wealthy comes up, they:1. Claim it can’t be done2. Spend tons of money influencing the political process so it isn’t done.3. Argue that taxing… Continue reading

  • Arthur Miller

    Two dramas, both from the 20th Century, have entered the American zeitgeist so much that their plots and characters are familiar to people who have never seen or read the plays. I’m talking about The Crucible, a 1953 play ostensibly about the Salem Witch Trials and allegorically about the McCarthyism era in the US. And… Continue reading

  • One more time

    Again is a word that comes up…well, again and again in conversation. It’s been around for a very long time; at least since Old English. But its meaning contains a surprising little twist.  What you probably think of when you use “again” is repetition; you did something once, and if you do the same thing… Continue reading

  • Proper Supervision

    My humans aren’t allowed to go walking unleashedand you know that it’s for their own good.If left on their own, they might wander awayand go farther than really they should. The poor dears don’t knowAll the dangers out thereThere are squirrels and rabbits and birdsAnd there might be much worseThan those things that I saidOr… Continue reading

  • October 17

    October 17 has at times been a bad day to be in London. In 1091, of all things, a tornado touched down. The city was a great deal less impressive in 1091 than it is now, but it did have a London Bridge — which the tornado demolished. It also destroyed the St. Mary-le-Bow church… Continue reading

  • Noah Webster

    In the US, some people use the word “webster’s” to mean “dictionary.” That’s because in 1828 Noah Webster published what was for a long time the most popular dictionary in the US. He titled it An American Dictionary of the English Language, but everybody just called it Webster’s Dictionary (which eventually became the title). Noah… Continue reading

  • You look marvelous

    Sir Arnold Lunn was a writer who seems to have been better known as a skier. He was knighted in England for his skiing, but not his authorship. He lived from 1888 to 1974, and there’s a monument to him in Mürren, Switzerland where he organized the first world skiing championship in 1931. His father… 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.

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