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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
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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
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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
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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
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October 14, just a standard day
This is the day that George Eastman received his first patent on photographic film delivered in a roll. It was 1884, and photography at that point was very much a matter of an individual craftsman putting together a camera, an amateur chemist preparing “photographic plates,” usually on glass or metal, and a self-taught photographer putting Continue reading
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October 13
If you’re not reading this on your mobile phone, stop right now and switch. Today is the anniversary of the first cellular service in the US being switched on. It was available only in Chicago, and the first service provider was Ameritech Mobile Communications. There were only a couple of kinds of phones available, and Continue reading
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Responsibility ain’t what it used to be
Sitting in the sun on a windy autumn day, the sun warming and the wind chilling. On the best days, when the textures of the season become leather and the colors creep into the real world from behind your eyelids, the warmth and the chill are in balance. It’s a comforting thing, balance. I don’t Continue reading
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Ready for bed
There’s a pre-bedtime practice I’ve found:I circle around and around.A nice three-lap spinbefore I tuck in —Just the thing to be sure I’ve unwound. -Chocolate Continue reading
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October 12
October 12 is Freethought Day, at least in California. Freethought Day commemorates October 12, 1692, the day the Salem Witch Trials were ended by the governor of the Massachusetts Colony (the US didn’t exist yet). The trials had gotten completely out of hand, particularly in the kinds of evidence that were being allowed. The tipping Continue reading
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Cold weather slowness
The weather’s getting colder;The kind I much prefer.But my humans just get slowersince they somehow lost their fur. They look for something special;they call this thing a “jacket;”I’d help them out if they would ask;I could prob’ly track it. Then when they finally find itand I think “good, that is that,”they start their silly search 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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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com