In the 60s, when we "lost it," we "went ape." Nowadays, we simply have a cow.

And where would we be without our bovine friends? In Anglo Saxon times, feoh, "cattle" and "money" were one and the same, helping contribute to the fees we now receive. The milch cow (1601) gave folks a "source of regularly accruing profit," or "a person from whom money was easily drawn," paving the way for today's ever-dependable cash cow.

No one relied on cows more than the Romans who used pecu, "cattle," as their standard of wealth and barter, creating pecunia, "money," which left us pecuniary — whether we were into cattle futures or not. Doing well financially made us pecunious, not so well, impecunious.

Fancy this somewhat peculiar? Peculiar originally spoke of "cattle belonging solely to one person," then just "private" or "special," then "strange."

What's peculiar in our day and age are sacred cows — persons, ideas, or objects, so sacrosanct as to be exempt from criticism. In India they roam the countryside. Here you'll find them in the fields of politics, education, medicine, and law, milking their specialty, as we milk this column, for all it is worth.



