-
Eat, paint, sleep
If you’re an artist, you might hold a “palette” in one hand while wielding your brush with the other. Your paintings could be described as representing a “palette” of colors. Then if you stop painting (and clean yourself up) you might go out to eat, hoping that something on the menu pleases your “palate.” Afterwards,… Continue reading
-
Protection
My sister Hayley won’t abidesidewalk users — either side.From the window seat she likes,She shouts at scooters, walkers, bikes. I don’t care as much as her;But interlopers what gots fur(like squirrels and those rabbit blokes?)They get my goat; I chase those folks. We protect our placeso wellOur human friends can never tell How close they cometo… Continue reading
-
September 6
When Norm Woodland was a Boy Scout in the 1930s, he learned Morse Code — he liked that kind of thing much better than other scouting stuff like camping and knot tying. They might not have used the term in those days, but Norm was a nerd. After he celebrated his 18th birthday (on September… Continue reading
-
September 5
There have been some strange taxes throughout history, but in 1698, one of the oddest ones was imposed on September 5. It was the “beard tax.” The Tsar of Russia at the time was Peter I (Peter the Great), who wanted to reform Russia to make it more like the modern European powers. He started… Continue reading
-
That word again
My humans use a word sometimesthat bothers me. I’ll tell it:The word is “no.” They like it so;They sometimes even yell it! The word’s supposed to mean to stopOr stay away or quietThey’re never sure;They can’t decide.So usually I don’t buy it. It all goes back to their beliefthat they’re the boss of me.That isn’t soat… Continue reading
-
Al-Biruni
Every once in a while you hear about somebody tagged as “the father of this” or “the mother of that.” But there’s a person you may not have heard of who’s credibly called the father of four entire fields: comparative religion, Indology (south Asian studies), anthropology, and geodesy (measurement and representation of Earth). I’m talking… Continue reading
-
Thar she blowth
You measure how wide something is by assessing its width. When you check how long it is, you have its length. Then you measure how tall it is, and you get…height. But not “heighth.” The “-th” ending comes from Old English. It’s also used in other Germanic languages as a way to change a verb… Continue reading
-
Too tall
I feel sorry for my human friends;poor guys are simply too tall. Noses so highup there in the skyare just no use at all. -Chocolate Continue reading
-
September 4
If you’d been around on September 4, 1923 and had one of those newfangled box cameras everybody seemed to be buying, you might have taken a photo of the USS Shenandoah on its first-ever flight. It was the first airship in the US (they’d been in use in Europe for quite some time). It was… Continue reading
-
Manifesto
I’m sorry to have to say this to youbut there might have been problemsat some random zoo. The problems with humanshave not been abatedso squirrels and humans?They must be related! You know about squirrels;each one is a dope.And humans, it seems,can’t learn to say “nope.” When they’re given a choicebetween dopey and sillyI’ve seen them… 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!
Privacy policy
No trackers, no ads, no data collected or saved.
Contact
peterharbeson@me.com