whole nine yards

[Stephen Goranson]

Rather than "IIRC" can you or anyone give a 1967 page number?
Stephen Goranson

Quoting "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: whole nine yards
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >In the 1991 book page 68, but not in the 1967 book:
> >"Smash had been married for over twenty years. But because of the many
> >long and
> >frequent TDYs away from home and 'irreconcilable differences,' he had
> >chosen to
> >split the sheets. Slipping out of the knot was expensive but Smash
> eventually
> >untangled the whole nine yards."
>
> Right, and a comparable passage in the same context is in the early edition
> too. IIRC it says something like "untangle what Smash would call 'the whole
> nine yards'" in the early edition which I read ... which I don't have handy
> now. It's possible there were variant editions back in the 1960's. The
> instance in question is the earliest one in the book: Smash met Mercy Belle
> (the one with all the beds) during some divorce-related activity: the
> passage would appear right about where Mercy Belle first appears in the
> book.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>