The Big Idea

It was born in 1857. Its two most prominent people were an Oxford professor and a Civil War Veteran. It took 70 years to complete, and when it was, it literally defined the English Language.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester, is the true story of how two men from vastly different backgrounds came together and, along with many others, put together the most important dictionary ever created.

The Professor

Born in February 1837, James Murray would grow up to become not the first or last editor of the OED's first edition, but he would be forever known as the most important.

Coming from the Scottish Borderland with an "unpromising, unmoneyed, unsophisticated" start at life, he very quickly proved himself to be an adept student, becoming a lecturer, joining all manner of philosophical societies,  eventually taking a professorship at Oxford.

Later, he would become the editor of the OED, and he fully took charge of the project, which at that point was nearly 20 years old. He instituted a full scale overhaul of procedures. The new plan: have volunteer readers carefully comb through books going back to the 1200's and pick out every interesting word, make precise notes as to the book and page, and cite the sentence the word appears in; then simply send them in. Every reader was given preprinted slips to fill out accordingly.

Murray and his staff would then go through all the slips, which eventually numbered in the millions, categorize them alphabetically, double check citations, write definitions based on the citations and common knowledge,  and send them to Murray himself, who would do the final edits on pronunciation and definitions.

The Madman

William Chester Minor was born in 1834 in the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to missionaries of the Congregationalist Church. There he lived until he was 14 when he was sent to live with relatives in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated Yale in 1863 as a medical doctor.

He joined the Union Army, but after the horrors of war, he moved to London, England, when, in 1871, he shot a man to death. The British authorities diagnosed him with what today we would call paranoia and schizophrenia (most likely brought on by the war) and sentenced him to life at the Broadmoore Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

There he stayed (late in life he was allowed to go home to his brother in CT), a brilliant man with nothing to do...until the OED came along. He was allowed to work on the project, and for nearly 30 years, he combed his books and became one of the most prolific contributors to the work.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Now we come the the final major character in Winchester's tale: the Dictionary itself. There have been dictionaries before; the idea goes back to the ancient Greeks. And there were earlier English dictionaries. But none of these earlier projects were bold enough to take on every single word --scientific and common, vulgar and sophisticated; every noun, verb (in all tenses), pronoun, article---- everything in the English language.

When all was said and done, the OED's first edition:

Defined 414,825 words
Had over 1.8 million quotations
One complete set (12 volumes) had 127 miles of paper, and over 200 million letters, numbers, punctuation marks and spaces, all hand set and letter-pressed.


Winchester's book, known in Britain as The Surgeon of Crowethorne, is a mere 242 pages long, but it is an epic tale which is gripping and well written. It is fascinating how two men with such different backgrounds and experiences would come together, and not only be colleagues from afar--Oxford was only about an hour away by train, but it would take Minor and Murray almost 20 years before they meet--but the close friendship they forge when they do finally meet.

Each chapter starts with the OED's complete entry for a word that describes the theme or events of the chapter. This is a very interesting device, and you learn some vocabulary along the way.

I had been eyeing this book for years, and I'm glad I finally took the time to read it. As William Safire said at the time it came out, "The linguistic detective story of the decade." Indeed it is.

A Launch Letter

"Launch Letter".  A few weeks ago, I had never heard that term. Now, I have one of my own.

A launch letter is something a new business sends out to friends, family, and prospective clients with the purpose of introducing the business and some relevant background on the people and industry.  In this case, the business is me, and what better way to start sending it out than a blog post.

So, with no further delay, here it is.

Dear,

My name is Bill Georato, Voice-Over Artist. Why voice-over? Well, I have always had an interest in entertainment, I had one line in my middle school production of A Christmas Carol, but it really started in college. As a DJ on college radio, first at WUMF 100.5FM (University of Maine-Farmington) co-hosting Bill and Matt’s Excellent Radio Show, then at WWLR 92FM (Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, VT) hosting my own show, Bill’s Basement, I learned how to use my voice. Over time, working in education as a middle school science teacher, and later as a health insurance  member service representative and finally volunteer presenter at the Museum of Science-Boston, I honed my voice and presentation skills teaching students and  visitors scientific principles through demonstrations and discussion. These aspects of my career- formal and informal education, and customer care- all have one thing in common: voice and presentation. This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle--formal voice-over training. One day, I was leafing through the local Adult Education brochure and saw a one night seminar being presented by Such A Voice out of Vermont. I took the class and decided that I wanted to pursue this as a career.

The voice-over industry is no longer simply radio and TV. These are still part of it, of course--Mike Rowe’s narration on Deadliest Catch, or Bob Saget on  How I Met Your Mother, for example--but there is so much more. Video games, audiobooks, GPS systems, talking greeting cards, home phone answering machines, and the recorded announcements at the airport are all voice-over. There are all kinds of voice-over in business and education too: E-learning programs, PSA’s, HR orientation videos, and IVR/Corporate voice-mail systems. Even Siri herself.

If you are in need of a voice talent, or know of someone who does, please send me their contact information. It will be kept in good hands. Thank you for your time and consideration, and looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Bill Georato

tinyurl.com/williamgvoice

The 1st Annual Spring Sprint Duathlon

As you know, I'm not much of a sports person, but I do enjoy running a little. I've done 5K's, a couple of half-marathons, and even finished the San Francisco Marathon.

This last Sunday, May 4th, 2014, I added a new event to my athletic career: the Spring Sprint Duathlon at Smolak Farms, North Andover, Ma. 

What is a duathlon? In this case, it's  a 5K  (3.1 mile) road run, a 13.3 mile bike race, and a 1.5 mile trail run. Add this up, and you get a nearly 18 mile race--just a little more than a half-marathon. And you do the whole thing, one right into the next. 

It all started at work about a month ago. Team Blue--Blue Cross Blue Shield MA's (BCBSMA) fitness and community involvement group--had put out the calender for upcoming events. I thought about doing this for a few days--after all, the location's convenient  for me, and I do also enjoy bike riding--so I signed up. There were only 10 spots available, and in the end there were only three of us. This gave us the option to race as a relay, but we are individualists, so while we started together, we ran our own race.

But there's one other thing......I volunteered, and was accepted to be, team leader/captain. In this, it was my job to take the team photo, make sure my team-mates had all the information they need, and take attendance on race day.  Not too difficult, but kind of funny that I was captain of an athletic team. 

Race day. I arrive about 6:30 am. Registration opens at 6:45, there is a mandatory meeting at 8:15, and the start is at 8:30. I've got my bike in the back of the truck, my Team Blue shirt, and ready to go. At registration, I pick up my bib for my self and my bike, and meet up with my team-mates, Christine and Angela.

Team Blue: From L--Angela, Christine, myself

The 5K

There were  about 120 competitors, and according to the Athlete's Guide, there were to be two waves: first all the men, then all the women and the relay starters. But in reality, we all started together, and right at 8:30, we were off. Heading down the main road through the farm and out the back gate,we wind our way through the back streets of  North Andover. The road is open to traffic, but we have half the road and there are plenty of volunteers and police to keep things safe. At the half way point, we literally turn around and head back. Once back on the farm, we head into the transition area to switch to the bike race. 

The Bike Race

In a duathlon, just like a triathlon, time in transition counts to your total time. You want to spend as little time as possible there. This is why everything has to be ready and perfectly positioned. 

Every competitor has their own spot in the transition area according to their bib number. I was very lucky with bib # 40; this put my bike in the front row of transition, and I could just run in, strap my helmet on (helmets are required in official USAT events such as this; I would wear one anyway), and get right back out. 

But before we could actually get on the bike, we ran/walked them up the hill to the main gate, and jumped on as we hit the road. From here, it was a 13.1 mile loop around the towns of North Andover and Boxford. Again, the road was open to traffic, but being Sunday morning, there wasn't really much. Volunteers and police were at every turn so it was very safe. There weren't many people out, so it was a quiet ride, and as we came up to another rider to pass, we'd say hello and good job. 

Since I have no odometer on my bike, and there were no mile markers on the road, it was hard to tell where on the course I was.  But I did have my Timex in chronometer mode; since it took about half an hour to finish the 5K,  at the 1 1/2 hour mark I figured I was getting close to the end of the ride (more on my times later.) And that was about right. Off the bike, and back to transition for the trail run. 

The U.S.S Sheldon Cooper ready for launch.

The Trail Run

The final section of the race took me into the apple and peach orchards on the farm. Weaving in and out through the rows of trees--and up and down the hill--I walked most of this course. I was tired, despite taking my Goo and water. Also, I had studied the course maps, including the changes in topology, but you never really know what you're getting into until you actually see it. 

Of course, you do have to run through the finish line, so once out of the orchard, I ran back on to the road and through the finish.

Post race

After running through the finish, I caught up with Angela, and later Christine. While I was the last to finish in our group, we all had a great race, especially since this was the first time any of us had done something like this. We were all happy with our times, and most importantly had a lot of fun in a great setting,  and would do it again. 

Time for food now.  The folks at Smolak Farms put out a nice spread: water, coconut water (which I quickly learned I didn't like), bananas, apples, ham and cheese quiche, broccoli and cheese quiche, and freshly baked banana nut muffins and Smolak's famous apple-cinnamon donuts. So good.

The Times and Placement

Here's my stats for the race:

111th place overall, out of 120 finishers
30:21 on 5K run
0:48 in 1st Transition
1:04:49 on 13.3 mile bike
0:36 in 2nd Transition
22:22 on 1.5 mile trail run

Total time: 1:58:54

13th in age group, 63rd in gender.

All in all, it was a great morning out, and looking forward to next year! 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: The opinions stated here are solely those of the author, and do not  reflect those of BCBSMA, or its management or staff.