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Cute, up to a point
Humans are cutewhen they bow to our wishes, opening doorsand filling our dishes. But whenever they step beyondtreats, toys and food,Those tall dopes can put me right into a mood. I try to correct them,And lecture them, too,but they’re dense;my instructions don’t always get through. They yell No! and Stop!and among their bad habitsIs thinking they’ll stop… Continue reading
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Gobsmacked
It’s flabbergasting how you can be metagrobolized by “flummox,” flummoxed by “metagrobolize,” and you can be both flummoxed and metagrobolized by “flabbergast.” “Flabbergast” first appeared in the 1700s. Today it means astonished or very, very surprised, but back when it was a new word (probably created by combining“flap” and “aghast”), it also meant terrified. The… Continue reading
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The Sayings of Chocolate
Chocolate is a young dog who always has plenty to say. After more than a year of intense study, I’ve learned how to translate much of what she passes along. To my surprise, she often speaks in rhyme, and usually has some trenchant observation to impart. On breakfast and playing chase in the back yard… Continue reading
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August 25
It was August 25, 1835, that the New York Sun newspaper published one of the greatest stories ever — certainly their biggest scoop in history. The greatest astronomer of the time was Sir William Herschel, and he had made some astonishing observations from his immense telescope of an entirely new principle, built in South Africa. … Continue reading
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Weather or not
In 1812, a bit later in the year than it is now, there was a warm spell in Boston. In those days it was called Indian Summer, and a clergyman in the city explained the term this way (he may have been making it up): “This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name… Continue reading
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August 24
It’s August twenty-fourth, a date that will live in…paperwork. It was the date in 1215 that the Pope declared the English Magna Carta invalid. The Pope got involved because, well, in those days the Pope got involved in everything. The Great Charter of Freedoms had been written by one of his crew, the Archbishop of… Continue reading
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The fruits of prohibition
In 1919 the US adopted the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol. It was generally known as “Prohibition.” In 1933, after reviewing the mostly disastrous results (enormous growth in organized crime, for one), the whole thing was repealed. But it left some traces behind in language. The most widely… Continue reading
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Madame Craucher
Do you remember the story, just a few years ago, about Anna Sorokin, who posed as a wealthy heiress in New York City and became close to any number of well-to-do New Yorkers, celebrities, and artists? Well she was probably not the last to try something like that, and it won’t surprise you to know… Continue reading
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August 23
August 23 is the birthday of the sculptor Alexander Calder. You’re thinking of the big steel mobiles and abstract constructions on exhibit in airports and concert halls. But no, it’s not that Alexander Calder. Oh, right, you say, you must mean Alexander Calder who sculpted the Washington Square Arch in New York; the one with… Continue reading
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This post is terrific
Words take on new meanings all the time. One of them is terrific. No, I mean one of them is “terrific.” It comes from the Latin word “terrificus,” which means frightening. But of course nowadays if you say something is terrific, you mean it’s marvelous and not frightening at all. Something like, I don’t know,… 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!
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com