Mystery solved...

This is the definitive answer on the "hinge-avoidance maneuver" referenced HERE.

Hinge avoidance:

Mr. F-18 Pilot wrote back:

A hinge is slang for a LCDR in the navy (the department heads).

His erstwhile wonderful, intelligent, booful wife helped him expound:

maybe I can help you out there...

A hinge is navy-speak for an officer who is more senior to the junior officers, but isn't quite senior enough to be in charge. So, he/she is on the cusp of big things... and sometimes has an ego that says they're already pretty important. The image is of a yes-man, (or bobble-head) nodding away at whatever the big bosses say.

These hinges can be trouble for a junior officer because their egos push them to demand a lot of respect (and extra work) from the guys below them on the totem pole. Thus, hinge avoidance is the maneuver where the junior guy gets out of the ready room before one of these self important chaps can task him with anything.

I forget that Mrs. Teacher Wonderful Wife has been familiar with the navy for a lot longer than my brother; she's a navy brat and her dad flew, too.

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Why does every doc tonight think that cervical lymphadenopathy is in the HEENT portion of the exam? The "N" is for NOSE. Not neck. NOSE. I don't know why this drives me so crazy, but it does.