"Close, but no cigar."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson, Green Beret Maj. Jim Morris began his 1978 memoir _War Story_
(Boulder, CO: Sycamore Books) with the epigraph (in bold face):

"The difference between a fairy tale and a war story is that a fairy tale
starts out 'Once upon a time' and a war story starts out 'This is no
shit....'"

Morris's book was reprinted as a Dell paperback in 1985.  Fred might
consider the q. for YBQ: many G hits.

I can't locate the precise phrase that eluded you either. Maybe you invented
it!Congratulations! (It plays on the platitude "All wars are the same.")
Fred?

I'll take Morris's saying (and yours) one step further: what the naive may
think impossible may actually be true; but much else will be exaggeration,
error, and other forms of BS.

Cf. the Iliad.

JL

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 2:36 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Close, but no cigar."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
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