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There exists a fantastic phrase that, when translated from French, thankfully does not lose its oomph: “The hour between dog and wolf.”
We can parse it three ways, or at least we could until recently.
Literally, it is meant to describe twilight — the time when day melts into night, but it is not fully either of the two.
Figuratively, you could interpret it to mean an uncertain time when there exist multiple possibilities or versions of what be illuminated or hidden in shadows.
And in a popular book from 2013 borrowing the phrase for its title, author John Coates describes “what happens to your body when you engage in risk-taking.” Coates, a physiologist and former Wall Street trader, shows that risk can transform someone into a different person.
Now, though, we have a fourth application of the hour between dog and wolf, which I talked about on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
It is J.J. McCarthy, or sometimes “Nine” as he said Wednesday in describing how a “switch gets flipped” on gamedays that allows him to channel his intensity and turn a normal smile into a piercing, focused glare.
