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Coincidence
Today marks a weird historical coincidence in the state of Idaho in the US. It all started in 1942, in the small town of Caldwell. Clement Leroy Otter was born there on May 3. His father was a sort of traveling electrician, and the family moved around quite a lot. Otter attended no fewer than Continue reading
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Mr. Smith goes to…Mars?
If you love good old-fashioned space opera stories where scientifically ridiculous space ships engage in ray-gun-powered dogfights in interstellar space, today is a good day to celebrate. On the other hand, if you’re a casual home baker who enjoys creating cakes and pies, but uses packaged mixes because they’re so convenient, today is a good Continue reading
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It’s too much trouble; where’s my broth?
“Gruel,” which you often read about in old stories about unfortunate waifs in nineteenth-century orphanages, turns out to be a catchall term for various kinds of broth. It could be anything from boiled oatmeal to thin soup. It was served in orphanages, and also to people suffering from various illnesses. But “gruel” is a light, Continue reading
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On second thought, make it a small
If languages can be said to have sizes, English is clearly one of the jumbos. Maybe the biggest, largest, greatest, most enormous, sizable, grandest, most immense, massive, gigantic, grand, and generous jumbo of them all. It’s got hundreds of thousands of words, after all. One way it got so big is by having multiple words Continue reading
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Anna Maria Jarvis
It’s the first of May, and in the US, that means Mother’s Day is coming up soon. It’s a strange holiday in many respects, and seems to mostly exist to support the greeting card, candy, flower shop, and restaurant industries. And it was founded by Anna Maria Jarvis, who was born May 1, 1864 in Continue reading
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Move along, nothing here
I usually write about words that are hard to find, and sometimes about words that are interesting in some unusual way. But I hardly ever mention words that don’t exist at all. But as you might guess — well, OK, maybe you wouldn’t guess because why would you even be thinking about it — regardless, Continue reading
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Unilaterally uniliteral
Most people know that when something is “unilateral” it applies to one side only. If an agreement is unilateral, it’s not really an agreement because only one side has agreed. There can also be unilateral disarmament, unilateral decisions, and so on. The word is derived from the Latin word “unilateralis,” which in turn was assembled Continue reading
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Amok. Running, that is.
It’s either an idiosyncrasy of English, or possibly of human nature: the only way to arrive at being “amok” appears to be by running. It’s been like that ever since the 1600s: “Like a raging Indian..he runs amucke (as they cal it there) stabbing every man he meets.” The word comes from Malaysia. When the Continue reading
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Claude Shannon
A master’s thesis is not typically a work of entirely original research or scholarship, like a PhD dissertation. Instead, it’s supposed to demonstrate, well, “mastery” of a field. But every once in a while, a student writes a master’s thesis that’s original and even groundbreaking. That’s what Claude Shannon did, back in the late 1930s. Continue reading
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Not so hot
Hot is hot and cold is cold, and in the middle is “warm.” If you’re talking about certain things (a day or a slice of toast for example), “warm” is a word you’d be likely to use. But other things (for some reason, liquids; water or milk) you might use “lukewarm” even though they could 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