bill! how remiss of you not to point out that this very URL has short discussions pertaining to "pear-shaped" and all those billions (or is it milliards) of words for snow.

(a related link is Mark Israel's FAQ; I don't remember if this has ever been cited here, but it carries quite a cachet of it's own and has particularly interesting sections on usage and word origins, many of which have been touched on here.)

http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html