The word "peculiar" holds me in its fascination. In common usage we connote "peculiar" as "odd" or "weird." I like those terms as well. And the word– peculiar– even sounds odd. Say it aloud, ten times repetitively, and a strange feeling coats your tongue and palate.
Thinkers and artists of much greater light than I have commented for centuries on the significance of the name. Shakespeare puts the deep question– "...what's in a name?"– in the mouth of his heroine Juliet. While I won't add my own tuppence here concerning this dialogue, the readers of these articles deserve some insight into the shift in my title for this collection.
