Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks - OCaml looks interesting, and would be a little further from Ruby than Lisp because of its static typing, right? Any frameworks (or good libraries) for web apps? I enjoy digging into languages on their own, but I also want to get things done, which is usually easier with decent libraries for data persistence and user interface.
If you want to learn a new language and a new framework, you should try Seaside. It is a very interesting approach to web development.
In case you aren't familiar with Seaside, the underlying language is Smalltalk.