#631 Joints and Crannies

Isn’t it odd how so many English words that refer to small things or places start with the letters CR?
You got your crack, which I think may have started it all. It goes all the way up to crevice and crevasse, which is essentially a big crack in a bigger thing, but still small by comparison to what it’s cracking.
Then you got your cranny, as in nooks and crannies. Which to me always sounds like a breakfast cereal or an Agatha Christie novel. Christie sounds like a CR small thing. And she did write mysteries know as cozies.
Then you got crooks. As in the crook of your elbow and also crooks and crannies. Or even the crook of granny’s elbow.
Then you got the feeling that comes from being in a tight place. Cramp.
As in, I feel cramped, not I feel cramps, although if cramps double you over, your whole body is suddenly like a crook in your elbow as your face moves towards your, you guessed it, crotch.
A crotch of wood is where two pieces join together tight. It closes the crack.
So, does craziness come from a cracked mind? People who are “crabby” certainly act as if they have a cramped mind. Or maybe their tiny cranium holds a brain with fewer creases than the many-folded cerebrums of normal people.
Tight places can cause mental problems—and physical too. I remember my parents keeping me in a crib way too long and it would drive me crazy when I got a crick in my neck.
I also remember crawling under the covers when my dad would have to fix the metal hinges on the overgrown cradle with a crimper.
Crimping my crib made me cringe.
And talk about narrow points of view. My grandmother would never crochet because she was too crotchety about my mom always telling her it was the perfect hobby for older folks.
Then she’d get out her butter crock and we’d have high tea from her meager menu of cranberries, crullers, and crumpets.
America, ya gotta love it