We were looking at architectural plans for a new dorm or something when I pointed at an oddly shaped room without any doors or windows and asked, “What’s that?” “Interstitial space,” said the architect (or engineer, or whatever he was.) “Interwhatis what?” “Interstitial space. Space that is just kind of left over or between two other spaces.” He smiled a little bit. “Good word, huh?” I had to agree that it was a very nice word.
It works for music too. The songs they play on NPR between the stories are interstitial music. NPR calls them buttons, but we all know what a bunch of dolts those guys are. If you want to really let people know you are a nerdy nerd, tell them that you think the interstitial music on NPR is not as good since Bob Boylan left “All Things Considered.” Go ahead and get your suspenders on, Erkle, because you are not getting any at this party. Nerdy nerd nerddom. (It’s true, by the way. Interstitial “buttons” not so good since the turn of the century.)
Interstitial space is not so much fun to live in. Except perhaps if you are Lazlow Hollifield. He made out all right in the interstitial space, and he even got the girl in the end. In real life, living in between is not so much fun. It’s much better to know, to have the whole picture. Sometimes, however, that is just not possible. Sometimes you know what is not happening, but you don’t know what is. Other times you have one piece of information that could mean a lot of different things. Or nothing. You just have to wait and see. And time takes time. There’s no app for that.