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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
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Cheshire Cat
One of the oddball characters in Alice in Wonderland is the Cheshire Cat. He doesn’t really do much in the story besides grin, and then gradually disappear (except for his grin). Have you ever wondered why a grinning feline would be called a Cheshire Cat? Lewis Carroll could have just invented it — he certainly… Continue reading
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R.H.W. Dillard
In the sometimes mysterious and remote Blue Ridge mountains in the US state of Virginia, there are countless obscure valleys and hidden keeps. The only habitation of note is Roanoke, where, on October 11, 1937, a baby was born. It’s not recorded whether any omens predicted the birth, whether any supernatural events accompanied it, or… Continue reading
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October 11
An odd thing happened on October 11, 1976. A promotion was awarded to an officer in the US Army. On the face of it, that seems like something that happens all the time, but this time the promotion was posthumous. Which is not something that happens all the time, but it’s certainly not unprecedented or… Continue reading
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October 10
In one of those odd coincidences that we manufacture all the time (because it’s not a coincidence until somebody says “gee, that’s an odd coincidence”), October 10 in 1914, 1915, and 1917 is the birthday of three famous jazz/R&B musicians: Ivory Joe Hunter, Harry Edison, and Thelonious Monk, in that order. Ivory Joe Hunter —… Continue reading
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Alice Dalgliesh
If you have children, or if you were, yourself, once a child, and if you can read (which, since you’ve made it this far in a much-too-lengthy sentence, we will assume), you’re probably aware that children’s literature that’s also historically accurate is easy to find. That was not always true, and that it now is… 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
Privacy policy
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com