October 5, 2005

  • Building is all around the place, it seems.  First, the steeple is in place at Christ Chapel:

    It's covered with copper tiles or scales or whatever, but the
    cameraphone didn't capture the color too well.  It's going to be
    interesting to see how this expansion is going to work out, since
    they're adding the new part in a wraparound fashion to an
    existing building. 

    Just north of Arlington Heights High there is a veterinarian clinic
    (since it's multiple vets, I suppose "clinic" is an appropriate word)
    which has added a new feature, I noticed:  the Grand Pet Resort.

    Pet Resort?  They're kidding.

    Except that right spang next to this building is another one under
    construction and the sign in front identifies it as the Hulen Hills Pet
    Resort.


    One     "pet resort" is bad enough, but TWO?  Right next to each other?

    What the heck happened to kennels?

Comments (12)

  • Hey, if you're having to put Muffy up for the week you're off to Cancun, would you rather go with a "kennel" or a "resort"? ;)

    Don't get me started. I think people err a lot when they start seeing animals as little humans.

    I do believe this is the first time I've seen the phrase "right spang next". Surely that's not a Texasism?

  • Faron's friend Ed, who is a solo act, calls his practice location "the clinic." Faron meets him there several times a week to run. It used to be Ed's house, before he got married, so Ed can grab a shower and get to work without going back home. Handy, huh?

    It's a neat place, too. Log cabin.

    me<><

  • I read a lot, Kurt. Must have picked it up somewhere. I'm a real mongrel when it comes to colloquialisms.

    Cindy, if Ed can call his place a clinic, then obviously the Hulen thing can be one, too. ;^)

  • Spang is a Texan saying, for instance, " she was right spang in front of the store." Don't know where it came from. But it's real!

  • One may also be found spang dab in the middle of something.

  • You know, this is really sorry.  I should have said right spang dab...  I think "right" always comes before "spang," but I could be mistaken. 

  • I thought it was spank, as in right spank dab in the middle of the whole kit and caboodle, or is it kitten caboodle?  Either way, I knew what you meant.

    I'm sure you have these too, but you didn't mention "Doggie Day Cares" -- places where you drop off your dog during the day while you're at work so someone else can play with him from 9-5.  They're popping up like zits on a teenager around here.  Incredible, it is.

  • So far, Plummy, "doggie day cares" appear to have mercifully passed us by.

  • I thought it was "right spankin' next to"

    But who am I to argue with True Southerners?? ..(being the Damn Yankee that I am.)  ;)

  • Mike says the proper prhaseology is "smack dab." 

    It's too bad  Americans are such nomads these days, or we might be able to trace these different phrases to different regions of the US.

  • Tell Mike iffen I'd meant "smack dab", be assured I'd have said "smack dab."

    I'm familiar with the term.

    But it didn't quite express the sentiment I had in mind as well as "right spang" did.

    Being sensitive to such subtleties and nuances of language is the hallmark of a gifted writer, donchaknow.

    Or symptomatic of being a real pickypants. Hard to tell sometimes.

  • Oh, no doubt it's a rare aesthetic atributable to the variety of elegant accomplishments posessed by a Great Lady such as yourself.

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