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November 6
Today is November 6, and it’s a holiday! But I bet you didn’t know that. You see, unlike other holidays that have primarily caught on because of catchy names like Mother’s Day and Halloween — that is, holidays with competent public relations teams — today is the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the… Continue reading
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The perfect treat
I get lotsof kinds of treatswhen all I say is “please.” One of my all-timefavorites isa lovely piece of cheese. Cheese is just the rightest stuffit’s chewyand has salt. It might just bethat rarest thing:a treat without a fault. -Chocolate Continue reading
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Open Letter
This is a noteto my four-legged pals:When you talk with your humans,beware! Their idea of “right now”is pathetically thinand they only know thingsthat are there. I think it’s becausealthough senses they haveit’s their eyesthey rely on the most. “Out of sight out of mind”is a thing that they say,and that mind, if it’s there,is a… Continue reading
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Poor dears
I feel sorry for humans;they really can’t smellwith their nosesso far from the ground. And that means they neverknow what’s going onor which dogs and catscame around. I could tell them,I guesswhen the most recent squirrelwas trespassing right in my yard, But it’s such a big botherteaching them how to speak.Even listening, for themis quite… Continue reading
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November 5
It’s November 5, which in England means it’s the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested in the basement of the Parliament building with a bit of incriminating evidence: 36 barrels of gunpowder. The plot was to destroy the House of Lords while the Lords — including, in particular, King James… Continue reading
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Frozen off
This morning it was super coldwhen I went out on my patrol.The air was icy; made me coughHumans’ tails? They froze them off! -Chocolate Continue reading
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November 4
Will Rogers, who was born November 4, 1879, didn’t let elections get to him. He did point out that “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” “Do the best you can,” he also said, “and don’t take life too serious.” Rogers was an enormously popular star in the… Continue reading
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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
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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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com