Earlier today I was having a conversation where I called someone 'hysterical' and a 'lunatic'.  That set me to thinking about English words and their origins.  These two words clearly come from Greek roots but frankly, who cares?  The people over at the Oxford English Dictionary, that's who!

I like to browse around Amazon.com occasionally - find a book I like and click through their recommendations and “other people are buying THIS book” links to see what else is out there which might interest me.  I've got something like a dozen books on my wishlist as a result.  I was browsing around the Amazon inventory in this fashion when I found The Meaning of Everything: the Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.  I normally stick to my geeky roots with sci-fi types of books, but this one really caught my eye.  Here is the story of a massive database project done before databases existed.  A handful of men guided this sixty year long project to find the meaning of every word in the English language.  Where did the word periwinkle come from?  Stuff like that.  It's a true life story of dedication, madness, and mice living in the letter B.  I've not managed to start the book thanks to my hyperactive social life, but I'm really looking forward to it.

-- Matt Ranlett