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Rabbits and Squirrels
Rabbits are badBut squirrels are worseRabbits are quietBut squirrels can curse! My sister and ICan’t abide either sortAnd we chase them away.It’s a job and a sport. I don’t try to bite themBut Hayley did onceCause she’s fast, and the rabbitWas kind of a dunce Who didn’t quite getThat Hayley is quickerAnd also an excellentShorty-cut… Continue reading
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My Collection
I collect rocksI select them with careAnd I carry them, too —From right here to right there. My family don’t get it;That much is true…And neither do I!Just a fun thing to do. -Chocolate Continue reading
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Power hungry
There are cars powered by gasoline, and they have engines. Then there are cars powered by electricity, and they have motors. A hybrid car, of course, has both a gas engine and an electric motor. The difference can’t just have to do with the fuel, because if you have a small boat, you can attach… Continue reading
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Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair was born September 20, 1878, and got famous first for his 1906 novel The Jungle. It was an expose that uncovered shockingly bad conditions in the meat packing industry of the US. That was over a century ago, and not everything has changed; a major US meat packing company is currently closed because… Continue reading
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New Bones, Chew Bones
I got a new bone yesterday;my favorite thing to chew.I was not the only one;Hayley got one too I started mine at once, you know;I am not a waiter.Hayley, though, stashed hers awayso she could chew it later. So now I’m mad; my bone is done,and Hayley started hers.She’s just happy chewingbut I’m feeling all… Continue reading
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September 20
Some things seem important at the time. They might even be remembered, but long-term their effects don’t seem particularly significant. This is the day, for example, that Agnes of Poitou met with Andrew I of Hungary in 1058 (!) to negotiate the border of Burgenland. Agnes was a queen in something vaguely resembling Germany, and… Continue reading
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Sharp! No, Dull!
If you were out and about around the 1770s and you encountered someone with a high-pitched, shrill voice, you might remark to a companion that there, forsooth, was a fellow afflicted with oxyphony. “Oxyphony” is a compound word made up of “oxy”, which means sharp or acidic, and “phone,” which means tone or sound. The… Continue reading
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September 19
Ahoy me hearties, ’tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrr! Her keel was laid down in the year 1995, it was, when crewmates Cap’n Slappy ’n Ol’ Chumbucket were granted the boon of an idea by ol’ Davy Jones himself. T’was June the 6th when they had the idea, but they fixed the day… Continue reading
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Grey Owl
In the 1930s in Canada, the author and lecturer Grey Owl became a well-known advocate of wilderness conservation and environmentalism. He was known as the son of a Scottish father and an Indigenous (Apache) mother, and achieved international attention for his articles, books, lectures, and films about the depletion of natural resources and the decimation… Continue reading
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Not so bad
Like the word “good,” “bad” has a very long history. Nobody knows quite where it came from. If it existed in Old English, it didn’t have exactly the same form, but there are several OE words that it might have come from. The first is not exactly a “word” at all; it’s the name “Badda.”… 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