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October 6
Although it might seem like it’s been around forever, the Instagram app was released exactly fourteen years ago today. It was available only for iPhones at first. An Android app came along two years later, along with a desktop version that works in a web browser. It appeared on Amazon Fire devices two years after Continue reading
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A good egg, that chap
An occasional Halloween prank in the US is “egging” where kids throw eggs at a house or a car. Their friends, you might imagine, are busy “egging them on.” But egging someone on, even when you’re egging them on about egging, has nothing to do with eggs. Well, I mean, in that particular case I Continue reading
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October 5
The most important thing about October 5 is that it’s World Teacher’s Day. It was first declared in 1994 by UNESCO (that’s the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund — the E used to stand for “Emergency,” but now it doesn’t) and the ILO (that’s the International Labor Organization, Continue reading
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Johanna Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh was not born today, but this story is very much about him as well as Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, who was born October 4, 1862. She was born in Amsterdam, and by the time she was 22 was teaching English at a boarding school. Around that time she was introduced to Theo van Continue reading
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October 4
In these upsetting and degrading times, many people around the world think about escaping the ills of their own countries and emigrating to another. Even here in the US, people are thinking about moving to, in large part, Canada. Even though at the moment US citizens may not be all that welcome in Canada. But Continue reading
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A Wild, Uproarious Comedy
Up until about the 1970s, a movie that was a goofy, possibly slapstick comedy would be advertised as “zany” and “madcap.” Both of those words are less common in recent decades, but still around. By coincidence, both words appeared in English around the 1500s, even though that century isn’t generally remembered as a golden era Continue reading
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Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe was a famous 20th-Century American novelist who often gets confused with Tom Wolfe, a famous 20th-Century American novelist. Thomas Wolfe came first, and was born October 3, 1900. He only lived to be 37 years old, but managed to become regarded as one of the most important writers in the Southern Renaissance in Continue reading
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October 3
It’s October third; Happy Thanksgiving! No, really — this is the day George Washington proclaimed it was Thanksgiving in 1789. But (you knew there was a “but” coming) Washington’s proclamation was only for that one year. Thanksgiving as a national holiday showed up only occasionally after that, when whoever was President at the time thought Continue reading
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Marvel Whiteside (Jack) Parsons
Jack Parsons is one of the most important figures in the US space and rocketry systems. He was a real space cadet, too. This is quite lengthy, but also quite a story, and all true. Parsons was born October 2, 1914, in Los Angeles, California. His actual name, and I’m not making this up, was Continue reading
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October 2
What’s on (October) second. Who’s on first, of course, and Tomorrow, the pitcher, will be the third, where you can find I Don’t Know, manning the infield catching Today…I mean, Today catching, and the last one, well, I Don’t Give a Darn. But the right fielder? We never find out his name. As you’ve probably 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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