The Right Facts for Right Angles
Sunday
In modern use, “cutting corners” means to skip some work or complete a task in a less honest or thorough way. Initially, the term meant to hurriedly drive your horsecart very close to a corner while rounding it, rather than taking a slightly longer right angle, although this tiny shortcut often meant hitting the curb and flipping the cart.
Monday
The idea of “the four corners of the Earth” representing all of Earth’s domains, especially the most remote, seems to originate in several Bible verses, with the “four corners” idea likely based on the four cardinal directions or possibly corners of a flat plane.
Tuesday
In contract law, the “Four Corners Rule” dictates that all terms of an agreement should be found within the document itself, particularly if those terms are clear and unambiguous. As such, outside evidence such as verbal or implied agreements between the parties should not be considered when enforcing the contract.
Wednesday
The “corner store” usually means a small convenience store where you can quickly find snacks or household essentials, whether or not it is actually on a street corner, where the name derived. Such stores are found around the world with a great variety of names, among them bodega, party store, deli, spa, package store, sari-sari, dep, packie, milk bar, pulperia, and mama shop.
Thursday
The corporate status symbol of the corner office began with the skyscraper boom of the late 19th century, but really solidified in the post-WWII years, when perimeter offices offered more privacy and natural light than the open, cubicled central areas, and none had more privacy and light than a corner office. However, corner offices and the status they convey have been declining in the Zoom era as they’re increasingly replaced by conference rooms and communal areas.
Thursday
The western United States has several famous corners, for reasons geographical and cultural. At the Four Corners Monument, you can have some body part in the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah simultaneously. In San Fransisco, the legendary corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets was the epicenter of 1967’s “Summer of Love” and much of the 1960s countercultural revolution, and Los Angeles’ intersection of Hollywood and Vine is home of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Capital Records Building (famously shaped like a stack of records) and many other buildings from the golden age of broadcast and film studios.
Friday
To “corner the market” means to control such a large amount of a commodity or stock that you can set the price for it and profit. While this illegal to do in stock trading, it is more loosely controlled (but regulated) in futures trading.
Saturday
To “turn the corner” means to be headed toward improvement. This idiom appears to have several possible origins, including medicine, when an ill patient passed a critical point and could start recovering, when a racehorse passed the final turn into the home stretch, and in the sense of an individual’s financial recovery.