catharctic

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Fri, 4 Mar 2005 20:03:56 -0800,  Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> writes:

>  Prominent defense attorney Mickey Sherman said tonight on Court TV's "
> Catherine Crier Live" that he hoped Martha Stewart's stay in the big house
> was "a catharctic experience."

MWCD10 page 181 "catharsis" means "2b a purification or purgation that brings
about spiritual renewal or release from tension 3 elimination of a complex by
bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression"

Either of these two meanings would fit what Sherman said without assuming he
made a scatalogical joke.  However I prefer "Cathar" meaning "various ascetic
and dualistic Christian sects esp. of the later Middle Ages teaching that
matter is evil..."

Or are you commenting that Sherman made a portmanteau of "carhartic" and
"Arctic"?

     - Jim Landau