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Word by Word
We pretty much take dictionaries for granted these days. But it hasn’t always been that way, and the process of creating dictionaries and dictionary entries is interesting enough that it’s been the subject of several books. The book that may have started the whole thing is The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester; it’s Continue reading
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November 3
About a thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries, on what’s now called Temwen Island in the Pacific, some people — nobody is quite sure who they were — started building a pretty extraordinary structure. It’s a city, but it’s not built on land. They built it in a lagoon. It’s about a Continue reading
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Sleeping in
Most mornings I happento be awake firstand I like a massagewhere I lie. A nose in the earalways wakes up my folks;they will grumblebut then they’ll comply. Some days (like today)I like to sleep lateand my humans could snooze in the clear, But they’re ruled by routine;automatic-al-ly,they are up with nonose in the ear! -Chocolate Continue reading
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The best spot
When I enter a room I do a quick scan.Not by eye or by nose or by ear.I use a sixth sense that humans don’t haveto detect what soft cushions are here. I check each, compare,I tweak and I fettleto see which is softest and best.Then I know that I’ve foundThe most comfy aroundAnd that Continue reading
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Popinjay
Calling someone a “popinjay” is slightly archaic, but still in use; the guy who was White House Communications Director for about a week a few years back, Anthony Scaramucci, was called a “popinjay” by several commentators. It appears to have been Felix Salmon’s idea, who started it all the way back in 2011, when he Continue reading
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November 2
The second of November is a big day in computer security; it’s the anniversary of the first significant computer worm distributed over the Internet in 1988. It was the Morris Worm, created by Robert Morris, a graduate student at Cornell. His intentions weren’t malicious, and the worm wasn’t intended to cause any harm. During his Continue reading
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Who was that?
In 1624, William Bedell published a book with the riveting title Copies Certaine Letters. In it he posed a question, which has echoed down the centuries ever since: “Who were these quidams that laid hands on Scory?” A couple of hundred years later, in 1832, the London Times pointed out that “If the doctrine of our English quidams be Continue reading
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Edward Said
The situation in the Middle East seems like it’s going from bad to worse, and it’s seemed that way for a long time. Maybe public intellectuals like Edward Said could help — but unfortunately Said, who was born November 1, 1935, passed away in 2003. Said was a Palestinian-American academic, critic, and activist. He was Continue reading
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Leaves
Humans put leavesIn big crunchy piles.They do it for me,And it gives me a smile. There’s always a somethingIn a pile to find.And the sniffs are a bonusOaked, mapled, and pined. When I see a leaf pileThen a run’s what I makeAnd a jump and a roll —Then the humans must rake. But I think Continue reading
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November 1
The moon is nearly invisible at the moment (it’s a “new moon”) — it’s a nice contrast to Ansel Adams’ most famous photo, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, which he made on November 1, 1941. At the time, Adams said “I think of it as a rather normal photograph of a typical New Mexican landscape.” The 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 Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but 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.
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peterharbeson@me.com