Chink? Kink? Crimp?

On December 27 I wrote, “There was another chink in my plan.”

As with many of my typos I am sure you asked yourself: chink? One brave friend emailed me:
Isn't it a "kink" in your plan? It is my understanding that "chink" is a derogatory word for a Chinese person.

For years I used to say, “Let’s play it by year.” I also put an x in espresso. I type "web sight" often. When I edit my writing I read it aloud to myself first. Believe it or not, I catch a lot of things that way. Next I spell check. When a word comes up spelled incorrectly, I often cannot see the difference between the misspelled word and the correct word. I have to take it one letter at a time to see the mistake. I hate this. I still make TONS of errors. I need an editor. I hate this. And yet, I am an English teacher.

So I did a little research on chink. And kink. And crimp. I think I can get to the bottom of the chink error.

Yes, chink is a derogatory term for a Chinese person or, for that matter, any other East Asian person. Chink is also two other things, thus the confusion. According to my Concise OED a chink is “1. an unintended crack that omits light or allows attack. 2. a narrow opening.”

You see, about a million years ago, at the pinnacle of my acting career, I played the part of Puck in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. At the play’s conclusion, a ragtag (is that the right word?) theatre troupe put on a play. In this play within a play (now within a blog) a chink in a wall is a central part of the story. In the prologue, we are told:

And through the Wall’s chink, poor souls, they are content,

To whisper. At which let no man wonder. (5.1.132-133)

Most of the action of the little play happens through this chink. The wall in which the chink is found is actually a character in the play. This was my first understanding of the non-slur meaning of chink.

Then I had a little boy (and a husband) who like(s) knights and castles and such things. Through this association (many call it marriage and motherhood), I learned the phrase, “chink in my armor”, which is the weak place in a kinght’s armor where he can get impaled.

That’s what I was trying to say about a chink in my plan. It was not some sort of racial-slur that might bring to mind an image of a smallish, cartoonish East-Asian running across the screen of your imagination destroying my carefully laid plans, all the while muttering high-pitched Chinese-sounding syllables. I meant that my carefully laid plan was like armor protecting me or a brick wall which I had built like a fortress around me. Phil going to the toy store exposed the weak point in my armor or the crack in my wall. Thus, a “chink in my plan.”

The thing is people don’t say that. I did a google search of common saying web sites (not sights) and could not find “kink in my plans” or “chink” in anything. Then “kink” started to sound funny to me. I started to think it was supposed to be “crimp in my plans”. No results from the common saying web sites on crimp either. So I tried a different tactic. I googled “‘kink in my plans’” and got back 395 results. Then I googled “‘chink in my plans’” and got back 17 results. I guess others make mistakes. Finally I googled “‘crimp in my plans’” and got back 645(!) results. So which is it? Obviously not chink.

I have decided that “chink in my plan” in a pun. Phil at the toy store wasn’t really a kink or a crimp, which are both some version of a rigid wrinkle. The toy store visit exposed my weak spot. So, I’m sticking with chink.