Pylimitics

"Simplicity" rearranged

  • 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

  • October 16

    You know, if Ricimer hadn’t defeated Avitus back on this day in 456 — which, incidentally, was the Year of the Consulship of Avitus Without Colleague — then he wouldn’t have gone on to be the magister militum of the western Roman Empire for the next sixteen years. There were various emperors, of course, but… Continue reading

  • My Favorite Routine

    After a walk of a mile or twoI come right back home and I know what to do.I always get treats and I check out my bedThen I’m set for a nap and I lay down my head. I sleep for a while, have excellent dreams(sometimes about a whole cup of whipped cream),And then I… Continue reading

  • Frederick Fleet

    When you read about a disaster like the sinking of the RMS Titanic, sometimes you muse about the details. Like “who first saw the iceberg, and what did they do?” In this case, we know exactly who first saw the iceberg and what they did. It was Frederick Fleet, a British sailor and part of… Continue reading

  • The old give and take

    Jonathan Swift was a writer in the 1600s and 1700s who’s still famous for satire. He wrote Gulliver’s Travels, which nowadays most people think is a children’s story about a guy who somehow ends up in a land full of little tiny people, the Lilliputians. Really, though, the story about the Lilliputians is just one… Continue reading

  • October 15

    Today we’re halfway through October, at the measured center of a month that ends with the thinning of the trusty veil holding back the dark from us. Or to take the other side of it, holding the chaos and discord of us back from the slower, comforting dark.  People have always been afraid of that… Continue reading

  • Hundred town?!?

    If you’re interested in ancient tales set in the British Isles, and you’ve already read Beowulf, you might turn to the Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge or the Welsh Mabinogion. There’s a certain structure pretty common to epic stories from thousands of years ago; they’re like super hero comics. There’s someone extraordinary who performs amazing feats,… Continue reading

  • W. Edwards Deming

    Manufactured goods from Japan have an excellent reputation for quality and durability. That wasn’t always the case; immediately before and after World War II, good from Japan were regarded as shoddy. One big reason for the difference is a person: the American William Edwards Deming, who went by W. Edwards Deming. He was born October… 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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