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August 8
The Wright Brothers made their first flight on August 8 in 1903. Only five people were there to see it. Their first plane, the Flyer I, only flew that one day, and then a gust of wind flipped it over and wrecked it. All they had was a photograph and the reports of the handful Continue reading
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Fend for yourself
Most people in the modern world see a lot of fenders every single day. Cars, after all, have four of them, and bikes often have one or two. But even assuming that the average American sees approximately 2,500 different cars every day, which would add up to 10,000 fenders, that’s not all the fenders you Continue reading
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Kith and kin
“Daughters, brothers, sisters, kith and kin,” wrote George Byron in 1824. “Kith and kin” is an expression that’s still in occasional use, although it’s in decline. And it’s been around for centuries. It’s pretty common knowledge that “kin” means family, but what about “kith”? “Kith” comes from Old English, and back then it meant “knowledge.” Not Continue reading
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Kermit Love
Did you know that there was a puppet maker, puppeteer, and actor who worked closely with Jim Henson in creating the Muppets and on the Sesame Street TV show, and whose first name was Kermit, but was not the namesake of Kermit the Frog? I’m talking about Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love, who was born August Continue reading
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August 7
Around 1936, the US government contracted with E.M.K. Geiling, a doctor and researcher who headed the (new) pharmacology department at the University of Chicago, to look into a series of deaths that seemed to be associated with a sulfonamide drug. Geiling had a graduate student, Frances Kathleen Oldham, who was there by accident. She’d applied Continue reading
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Whither and whether the bellwether
The Washington Times was opining about the US managing to finally get out of Iraq, back in 2006, when it printed “That’s why we should have used some bellweather event like the signing of the Iraqi constitution, or the parliamentary elections as our moment to declare victory and exit stage left.” Whenever US national elections Continue reading
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Freddie Laker
If you travel by air, you’re probably as annoyed as everybody else with the way airline travel has descended to the lowest levels of service, carry-on space, food, and other things. Airlines once provided much better and more inclusive service. On the other hand, you might appreciate the lower air fares you can often find Continue reading
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August 6: from here to modernity
August 6, 1926 is the day the silent film era ended; that’s when the Warner Bros. movie Don Juan opened, using the new Vitaphone sound system. People had been used to getting their sound from radios and their visuals from movies, but those things were starting to merge. Television was first demonstrated around the same Continue reading
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Obscurely obscured
If you were in the wrong place for watching a full moon or an eclipse it could be due to “obnubilation.” The sky can be obnubilated any time, of course, not just when there’s an eclipse. Skies have been potentially obnubilated since the late 1500s when the word “obnubilate” appeared in English. It’s derived from Continue reading
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Thick as a brick
A “pachyderm” is an elephant. Quite a large sort of animal in most people’s opinions. And although elephants don’t, strictly speaking, have toes, the term “pachydactyl” means a type of animal (often a bird) that has large toes or talons. An ostrich, for example. Or the Road Runner from the cartoons. Another group of animals 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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