To refresh language, one has to go to the place where it was new, exciting. And where else is the Word more primodal than in lullabies. So that explains why I am now googling like crazy to find and go back to those first sounds and first songs, other than just for the hell of it. Gertrude Stein, if I remember well, had written a whole tract on this subject.

Meanwhile, if any of you kind readers has $1000 to spare, please buy me the OED ( www.oup.com ) for the New Year. One of my good friends has it - his pride, my envy. Oh! Also, is the Onida Devil (of DD fame) still alive? Merci!