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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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 newsletter, Artisanal Scribbles, where I’m grappling with writing, authentic human authorship, integrity, and the craft of beauty in the AI age. You can also find some of my old software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly wrote tiny utilities in Python and shell scripts. I’m mostly retired from coding nowadays.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
Recent Posts
- The Cycles within the Arc
- I’d rather have a taco
- 20-something Hubris
- You can’t be a leader without followers
- Candy Trees and Handkerchiefs
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
Quotations
Resistance
Stories
Tales from the Forest
Technicalities
Tragedy
Unanticipated Consequences
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com