A Hiatus Brief

It’s, er, been a while.
Sorry, there have been extenuating circumstances; but we’re back on blogging track now, so let’s kick start the recovery by considering, appropriately enough, the word ‘hiatus’.
(Pause for thought).
Could this word be applied to our current situation vis a vis the company blog? Let’s see what Encarta has to say: ‘an opening or aperture in an organ; for example the opening in the diaphragm for the eusophagus’. Isn’t that too medical? It’s true: the reason ‘it’s been a while’ is sort of medical, but it has involved no opening of the diaphragm, thank-you very much.
But wait, there’s another definition. ‘A break in pronunciation between two vowels that are next to each other in consecutive syllables without an intervening consonant, as in ‘re-examine’.’
We like the literary overtones here that might suggest our blog would be a worthy subject for academic observation; but like the man used to say: ‘it’s good but it’s not right.’
There’s a third option: ‘a gap where something is missing, particularly in manuscripts’. Close, but no cigar.
Then there’s the one that sounds painful: Hiatus hernia. Apparently, the most common version of this malady, presenting in 95% of cases, is the sliding hiatus hernia, where the gastroesophageal junction moves above the diaphragm together with some of the stomach. The second kind is rolling (or araesophageal) hiatus hernia, when a part of the stomach herniates through the esophageal hiatus and lies beside the esophagus, without movement of the gastroesophageal junction. A third kind is also sometimes described, and is a combination of the first and second kinds, but you knew that already…
Not our kind of hiatus, though, painful as that may be.
But how about this? ‘Hiatus: a break in something where there should be continuity.’
Ah, at last, the perfect charge, to which we have no option other than to plead guilty.
In mitigation… Well, actually there is no mitigation.
But you can be sure that future Mondays will be lit up, as once they religiously were, by a new edition of the blog that counts. OK, counted. And will count again. Maybe. And not a hiatus in sight.
So that’s good then.
It’s great to be back.