Speaking of catch-phrases

[Johanna Franklin]

    I've always heard it as "Close only counts with horseshoes and hand
grenades."  Some of my friends include thermonuclear devices, too.

    Johanna

Excerpts from mail: 14-Dec-99 Re: Speaking of catch-phrases by Laurence
Horn at YALE.EDU
> At 10:37 AM -0500 12/14/99, Bob Haas wrote:
> >Except in horseshoes.
> >Except with shotguns.
> >Except with grenades.
> >
> >Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> >> Does anyone have "'Almost' doesn't count" on hand?
> >>
> I've heard the first and third (typically conjoined):  '...except in
> horseshoes and hand-grenades', which alliterates nicely.  I haven't heard
> the shotguns, and I imagine nuclear bombs, etc., would work as exceptions
> as well.  The question remains, though, especially since (or at least so I
> suspect) the "'Almost' doesn't count" part preceded the discovery of the
> exceptions.
>
> larry