OK, so it's not really a gallimaufrey of words like my earlier Uncle Jazzbeau's elist was back in '97, but it is an experiment in writing a blog, and we'll just have to see how far it goes.

I wanted to put up a space where I could list interesting words, and their etymologies and meanings, but I think that I won't limit myself to English vocabulary as I had in the past. Any language is fair game.

I'll also review books and films here, too. I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately while commuting to San Francisco on BART.

Currently, I'm studying Russian -- again. I've tried in the past, but it didn't seem to last. Ever since my high school days, when Mr Shashlin tried to teach me a few words and phrases, I have been fascinated with Russian. At Oracle, I had a crash course from Ilya and Slava in Russian literature. I've always liked Nabokov, but then I was introduced to Ilf and Petrov's Ostap Bender novels (The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf) and Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry.