A Cater Corner* Place Holder

Not Eric Holder, thank heavens…

Just a note to let all of y’all know the Baron is away from his desk. The poor man is making the slog into town to get antibiotics for me; it will be a right good while before he returns.

I had a root canal done on a molar yesterday and early this evening the remaining tissue has swelled up something fierce. I really do look like one of those cartoons with an ice pack on my right jaw, tied with a scarf. Not nearly as amusing as those old jokes, but, hey, real life seldom is.

Many of you know how far we live from civilization. As I used to say sometimes, we’re forty miles from the nearest latte. In addition, it’s also the same amount of time from here to the only synagogue around…which was once a church. Cater-corner* from the synagogue is a Catholic church, which backs up against a library and is directly across from some lawyers’ offices. I used to call that whole configuration – synagogue, church, library and lawyers – Holy Moses. Right there you could find any kind of spiritual or legal or literary solace you needed.

But not antibiotics.

*Catty-corner is a directional word, meaning that something is diagonally across from something else.

In case y’all have a different word to indicate “diagonally across the street”, here are some selections from a site I’m too woozy to source. They come from a website called Daily Writing Tips. When the Baron returns he’ll put in the link, but meanwhile here’s the meat:

The word started out as cater-corner. Cater is an English dialect word meaning “to set or move diagonally.”

When the word cater with its meaning of “to set or move diagonally” dropped out of the language, folk etymology got busy and now we have all kinds of “cat” variants for this concept:

  • catty-cornered

  • kitty-corner

  • kitty-cornered

  • catty-corner

  • cat-a-corner
  • kitty-corner

  • kit-a-corner

I’ll bet the French idiomatic phrase for “diagonally across the street” is even more entertaining.

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The Baron left y’all reluctantly, believe me. But duty called…

…meanwhile, me icepack is slipping…

5 thoughts on “A Cater Corner* Place Holder

  1. Ah, the root canal… Every time I have a dental surgery of this magnitude done I have an insatiable need for hot coffee. I usually have to drink it out of a straw. I think it’s the “snap out of it” reflex.

    • Ah, the coffee trick. The B. had the coffee and the straw waiting for me when I got out of the dentist’s chair – after 3 hours…We figured I’d be so numbed up, I’d need a straw. Boy, that tasted good.

      Took 18 hours for the swelling to set in and the post-op pain to increase…

  2. If you want some REAL definitions please take a look at two books :

    THE MEANING OF LIFF and AFTER LIFF. ( No, there are no mis-spellings )

    ( New York residents will be particularly interested in the meaning of LACKAWANNA. )

  3. Commiserations on having to take antibiotics. That’s your gut biome/flora screwed. Heal ASAP. x

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