The New York Times Book Review feature “By the Book” always begins with the same question: “What books are currently on your night stand?” I wish that just once an interviewee would reply, “What night stand? I don’t have a night stand. What’s with ‘night stand’? Why do you assume that that’s where everyone keeps their books?”
Reader, do you have a night stand? And is it made of two words, or one?
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
One or more night stands
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comments: 6
It's complicated.
"Night stand" brings to mind the euphemism "night stool," which is, of course, designed for the collection of "night soil" and other excreta.
This chap did just that.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/books
/review/alan-moore-by-the-book.html
@Fresca: ?! :)
@Chris: I just want to say that I have neither stand nor stool nor euphemism by my bed.
@Anon.: Thanks for that! I’d still like to see someone question, in a Larry David-like way, the assumption that reading involves books on a night stand. :)
I blogged a response---I have a stool (it's really a stool! "a seat without a back or arms, typically resting on four legs") for my lamp, a freestanding slidey-accordian book holder for books in wait, the floor for books currently being read, and I call anything next to a bed a "bedside table."
"Night stands" are for medical care facilities.
Interesting books too!
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