moustache--(Why a moustache was likened to a baseball team)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Gerald Cohen writes:
> > On Dec. 13, 2004 Bill Mullins sent an ads-l message wondering how
> >"miniature baseball nines" could mean "moustache" in a 1929 high-school
> >yearbook. [See item below my signoff.]
> >
> >  It just occurred to me that the answer is obvious:
> >        The writer twice refers to the moustache making "the hit" with the
> >girls. Baseball teams make hits. Ergo,...
> >
> >     Q.E.D., case closed. It's Miller time.
>  ~~~~~~~~
>Considering the age of the "men" in question, it could just be a mean
>allusion to the sparseness of the mustaches: nine whiskers on each side.
>A. Murie

This was/is my speculation too (more or less):

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412B&L=ads-l&P=R15551

I think Gerald Cohen's interpretation is a possibility also (although not
entirely natural and surely not by any means obvious or certain IMHO).

Anyway, I was convinced enough to have a Miller or two.

-- Doug Wilson