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Biting commentary
A bitter taste is unpleasant. It’s acrid and sharp, and the sharpness is the key to why it’s called “bitter.” That’s because “bitter” used to be the Old English word “biter,” a word that was just what it sounds like; something that bites. A bitter taste “bites” your tongue, so to speak. Having begun with Continue reading
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William Least Heat-Moon
Do you enjoy road trips? Back in the days before GPS, in the US at least, one way to plot out a road trip was to use a “road atlas,” which contained maps of most of the roads across the country. The major thoroughfares were thick red lines, the multilane highways were orange, and the Continue reading
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August 27
It’s August 27, the anniversary of the first successful oil well (at least in the US), in Titusville, Pennsylvania. People knew about oil in the 1850s, of course. In some parts of the world you could get the stuff out of freestanding pools (like tar pits), and it had been used for thousands of years Continue reading
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Morning Dog
I’m a morning dogand I get up at six.My humans do grumblebut I have my tricks. A pat on the earand a lick on the feetwhen they try to pretendthat they still are asleep. But it’s time to get up!Take me out; that’s my goal.And while I’m outside,Breakfast please! In my bowl! When I’ve run Continue reading
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Slowness personified
I don’t want to saythat my humans are slow,but so many thingsthey just don’t seem to know. Things that are clearto my sister and meto the humans are just one big mystery. Could it be dueto their smallness of nose,or their miniature ears,Or no tails, do you ‘spose? -Chocolate Continue reading
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Wordmakers
In England (at least), someone who designs crossword puzzles is called a “crossword setter.” There was one crossword setter — you can find his work in the Guardian newspaper online — who goes by two names. His given name is “Donald Putnam”, and he created puzzles called quiptic crosswords. According to the newspaper, that’s “a Continue reading
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Karen Spärk Jones
Have you ever wondered how search engines work? Beyond just “make a list of all the words on all the websites,” I mean. The technical term for that “list of all the words on all the websites” is the “bag-of-words model.” No, really, that’s what it’s called. And the bag-of-words model doesn’t work very well Continue reading
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August 26
Today is the anniversary of the adoption of the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution. It’s usually described as “granting women the right to vote,” but the language itself is slightly different; it prohibits federal and state governments from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex. The US Constitution is actually a Continue reading
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Comedian
There was stuff in my yardand I rolled in it good.A sniffer joke good for a laugh. But while I was yukkingit up with my palsI got captured and put in a bath. Everybody watch out because humans are denseYou can’t count on them havinga humorous sense! -Chocolate Continue reading
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Product Review
Ever since I bought my humansI’m afraid that I’ve been gypped;their sniffers are defective and they cannot hear at all. They’re pretty good at tossingand their thumbs are pretty good,but their thinkers aren’t so thinkyand I worry that they’ll fall. But I guess I’d better keep ‘em‘cause you just can’t trade ‘em in,I’m pretty sure they 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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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com