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Here is my lovely assistant
Calling a magician a “prestidigitator” is not unusual — in fact, depending on the stage persona of the magician in question, “prestidigitator” might even be part of their act. It means “quick fingers,” as in “the hand is quicker than the eye,” and it comes from French, where it was the nearly-identical “prestidigitateur.” I bet… Continue reading
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Tradeoff
I dislike rain falling on my neckbut after it’s done I like the effect.‘Specially when there’s piles of leaves,The sniffs are better! You wouldn’t believe. So I’ll allow the rain, I s’pose,Because it’s better for my nose.I stay inside until it stopsand then I’ll venture on my walks. -Chocolate Continue reading
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Don’t (b)link
An updated retelling of It’s a Wonderful Life. The best(?) version of Carol of the Bells. Even pseudo-political figures are described as “brands” now. But the question remains, at least for me, why media-based branding works so damned well on so many people. Interesting but incomplete and not fully considered notes about, of all things,… Continue reading
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The favorable dataset
Annnnd…here’s the next installment! You’ll remember the Acrasy List, and that will, I’m sure, bring to mind its contrapositive companion, the erstwhile Nice List. But just a bit of scrutiny shows that “nice” has not always been a suitable sobriquet to apply to anyone you hold in the slightest esteem. “Nice” arrived in English from… Continue reading
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The undesirable dataset
Nowadays we talk about Santa’s two lists; the Naughty and the Nice. But it hasn’t always been that way. It’s not easy to find the clues, but The Truth Is Out There. Let’s start with “naughty.” “Naughty” comes from naught — no, that’s not quite right; it didn’t really pop up out of nothing. What… Continue reading
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Nope, that’s not it
During the 1600s in England, a great many negative words were coined by adding the prefix “mis-.” That is, if you acknowledged someone or something, but then discovered you’d made a mistake, in those days you’d say you “misacknowledged.” There was also “missadd” in 1657 for summing poorly, misalter in 1641 for making an error… Continue reading
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Poor slobs
In 1699 Abel Boyer published a dictionary with the unusual characteristic of a three-sentence title: The royal dictionary. In two parts. First, French and English. Secondly, English and French. In that dictionary you can find this entry: “Pill-garlick: a pitiful sneaking Fellow out of Countenance.” It wasn’t long before “pill-garlick” became the word “pilgarlic.” It… Continue reading
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This is really fantastic!
Nowadays being “enthusiastic” is generally considered a good thing. It means you’re intensely interested in something (like a hobby), you enjoy it very much (like a piece of music), or you highly approve of it (like your favorite sports team). This hasn’t always been the case, though. “Enthusiasm” came from the Greek word “enthousiasmos,” which… Continue reading
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Brrr
My coat is fur,I’m young, not old,but I don’t likethis crazy cold. My family talksabout “degrees,”and lately all they dois sneeze. I hope that thisis cold as it gets.Humans and dogs:our noses are wet. -Chocolate Continue reading
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Meaning meaning
“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” (Groucho Marx) “We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” (Benjamin Franklin) Those are examples of “antanaclasis,” which is repeating a word (or a phrase), and using it in a different sense the second time. The word comes from Latin,… 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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