JUST RUSHED HERE FROM FACEBOOK to write this quick piece to solidify any claim I might have to coining a new idiom: “Beyond the hinge.” I had posted a link to an article about Rudy Giuliani’s ongoing battle with truth, hypocrisy, and the American Way when Michael Grego, my old school chum (Wyoming Valley West Class of ’69), chimed in. Here’s our back-and-forth pattering:
MG: I’ve been predicting the first debate was going to completely unhinge Trump.
NU: Well, you got it right, but who thought he’d unhinge Giuliani and Hannity at the same time?
NU: WAIT! What the hell am I saying? Giuliani and Hannity have been beyond the hinge for decades!
NU: WAIT! “Beyond the hinge.” Did I just coin a new idiom? Now I gotta go write a piece with that title for my blo . . .
A thing or two about hinges
As a noun, a hinge is “a jointed or flexible device on which a door, lid, or other swinging part turns.” As a verb, it means “to attach a door, gate, or cover by hinges.” Other than that, it has little to do with my new phrase. (Merriam-Webster)
To come unhinged
The reasonably common idiom to come unhinged means “to become mentally unbalanced, disturbed, or confused,” or similarly, “to be angered to such a degree as to be or seem mentally unbalanced or insane.” (FreeDictionary)
On the fringe
The idiom on the fringe means to be “at the extremes of something, typically political thought.” (FreeDictionary)
Beyond the hinge
My new phrase beyond the hinge refers to a person who has already established himself as being on the fringe of an extreme philosophy, belief, argument, etc., who takes a Kierkegaardian leap-of-faith into the uncharted waters of thought beyond those extremes—usually, but not necessarily, with predictably disastrous (and stupid) results.
At least, that’s the definition I have given it until I think it through or accept argument sot refinements to it.
FEATURED IMAGE: The door with the spectacular, antique-looking metal hinge at the top of this page was crafted by Art Craft Custom Doors and Furnishing.
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
Just a copy editing suggestion regarding an apparent typo: Your last word on the matter (not counting the note on the photo) is ” ... that’s the definition I have given it until I think it through or accept argument sot refinements to it.” I think you intended to say: ” ... that’s the definition I have given it until I think it through or accept arguments or refinement to it.” (Of course only you can say.)