Let me warn you now…this might get long. But I promise it will eventually come back around and explain the title.

So I was thinking this morning about words, and mentally preparing the introduction to our word category (still…again…) and I was pondering the word project – like art pro’ject, not like one would project’ a slide. I was considering the use of the word pro’ject as a verb, and again, not as one would project’ on an overhead projector, but the act of doing a pro’ject. Like, when I’m at home drawing our banner and you’re at home building a bunny house, we are pro’jecting. I was debating how I would show the reader the two different pronunciations of the word (you can see I went with a boldface and an accent mark for the syllable that should be emphasized) and it occurred to me how brilliant dictionaries are in that they have a whole language of symbols dedicated to pronunciation. This led to long happy musings on how much I love dictionaries, and how I think I will take some pictures of my dictionary collection for the blog, and then – it came to me! – a great project I will do if someday I become really really wealthy. I will make a dictionary that combines all the languages of the Latin alphabet, or perhaps, more realistically, all the Romance languages. Each word will be listed in its native tongue, with the definition, pronunciation, root, etymology and synonyms provided in all languages. The entries for each word will be completely comprehensive, like the Oxford English Dictionary, so perhaps I will call it the Oxford Romance Dictionary. Except I won’t be making it in Oxford, so I guess I will call it the Mother of all Dictionaries instead. I really like this idea because I suspect there are words in other languages that explain things that we may not have an English word for; for example, deja vu. The dictionary will be printed on that very thin paper they use in all old dictionaries, the kind that comes off the press already smelling like an old used bookstore. I will research fonts and maybe use one of the old typesetting fonts from earlier dictionaries…anyways, it went on like this while I showered, made my lunch, took out the trash…and then it occurred to me, this dictionary is going to be huge, where am I going to keep it? It will probably have to just live on the floor, and I will have a large chandelier hanging over it, and if I am short on space, I will just throw a mattress on top of it and use it as a bed. Of course, if I am wealthy enough to make such a dictionary, I doubt I will be short on space, but the idea of sleeping on a giant dictionary is so appealing, like the princess and the pea, except the pea is every single word in all the Romance languages. This would be such a fantastic project, that would probably take years of time, and a lot of resources and research and dedication, I will probably have to spend days, weeks, months, poring over old dictionaries and hiring translators and laying out pages, and at the end, when it is done, and I throw my mattress on top of it, people will probably think I have gone insane and they will have me committed. But…what if I documented the whole project with a blog? Ah ha! Then I wouldn’t be judged crazy, I’d probably get a book deal and a spot on Oprah! Because a blog legitimizes all sorts of otherwise crazy ideas! Like that girl who wore one dress for 365 days in a row – pre-internet, people would have been like “you are a strange lady” but she turns it into a blog, and all of a sudden she’s an internet sensation, she has a message, a cause, and a ton of followers.

See, the title makes sense now, right? Our blog: legitimizing all our creative endeavors, hermetic tendencies, mysterious business cards, and other brilliant ideas.