"Close, but no cigar."

[Wilson Gray]

I had to ask what that meant, when I first heard it, and it's still
slightly mysterious.

IAC, I've been searching for the source of some like the following,
the opening of a Vietnam-War combat novel:

"All war stories begin the same way. This is no shit."

I read it as a double-entendre:

A) The assertion that all war stories begin in the same way is true.

B) All war stories begin with the words, "This is no shit," i.e. with
the assertion that the story to follow is true, however unlikely that
may seem to those fortunate enough never to have seen combat.

The closest that I've been to come to the above is the below:

      "Know the difference between a fairy tale and a war story?" one asks.
"A fairy tale begins, 'Once upon a time.' A war story begins, 'This is
no shit.' "
     This is no shit.


Close and, IMO, perhaps even more interesting. But, among other
obvious differences, these sren't the very first words of a novel.

For anyone who cares, besides me, cf. GB at: http://goo.gl/zRFhO et
al. (Writings by sailors and marines substitute _sea_ for _war_, in
their versions of this.)

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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