question on "the nine yards of blank paper" 1917

[Stephen Goranson]

Thanks, Bonnie, though I wonder whether we may compare the following three texts a bit differently. (And, in context, do your 1940 and 1956 texts convey a sense of everything or completeness [and may full/whole/entire story be an instantiation of everything?]? Also, I'm unclear about your use of "Or." Of course I agree that more relevant texts likely may help, and you may prefer to wait till then.)

1917
"Buck Campbell, the more or less baseball expert of The Winston-Salem Journal, took the trouble to pen Left Hook a long letter, in which he told all there was good to tell about the Twin-City. Buck wrote everything that was on his mind.--Asheville Citizen. You shouldn't be so hard on us Lefty. Remember there is a board of censors here. that is the reason you got the nine yards of blank paper."
Winston-Salem Journal 04-01-1917 page 10, col. 7.

1962
"When you decide what extra cost equipment the American car buyer would like
to hear about, each of the models tested should be so equipped.  Your staff
of testers cannot fairly and equitably appraise the Chevrolet Impala sedan,
with all nine yards of goodies, against the Plymouth Savoy which has
straight shift and none of the mechanical conveniences which are quite
common now.  The cars tested should be as nearly alike as possible."
>From Gale F. Linster, Decatur GA, letter to the editor, "Constructive Criticism," *Car
Life* Vol. 9, Issue 11 (December 1962), Pg. 2

1966
"Then two-engines, two pilots, and the rest, the nine yards of things that we
have really all been aware of for a long time and should pay a lot more attention to."
Technical Review of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 176.

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Bonnie Taylor-Blake [b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 7:11 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] question on "the nine yards of blank paper" 1917

I think your find is interesting, Stephen, and at least suggests "the
nine yards of" as a reference to "a lot" may have been in use at the
time.

Or have I rather densely missed that you might be attracted
specifically to "nine yards of [blank] paper" and the sense of
telling?

For what it's worth, I was excited once to find references to "nine
yards of train and plane tickets" (1940) and "nine yards of red tape"
(1956), but -- as I either realized on my own or, more likely, as Fred
pointed out to me -- it's really tough to know whether there was any
particular significance to "nine yards" and whether it may have
indicated a lurking meme.  In other words, were there people who truly
favored "nine yards [of]," perhaps over other measurements, to signify
"a lot" or were these just easy-to-find instances of
not-especially-preferred "nine yards of" usages by a couple newspaper
columnists?  These certainly didn't evoke the idiom itself, but they
did indicate "a lot."  Of course, your find may go further,
strengthening a use of "nine yards of" with reference to
information-sharing.

I don't know where, if anywhere, we'll end up with all this, but it's
nevertheless fun to think about and I enjoy the discussions that take
place here on the list.  Me, I'm a little stuck now until we find
other early usages of the idiom itself, but I'm sure they're coming.

-- Bonnie


On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> The following was published on April 1 (...the first), 1917 in the already-attested approximate geographic and time ranges, and in a relatively small newspaper, about baseball, concerning an attempt to "tell all...everything," and a facetious imaginary perhaps-pseudo-measurement...
>
> Anyway, what do y'all make of it as related, or not, to "the whole nine yards"?
>
> "Buck Campbell, the more or less baseball expert of The Winston-Salem Journal, took the trouble to pen Left Hook a long letter, in which he told all there was good to tell about the Twin-City. Buck wrote everything that was on his mind.--Asheville Citizen. You shouldn't be so hard on ol'/the/our [?--uncertain letters] Lefty. Remember there is a board of censors here. that is the reason you got the nine yards of blank paper."
>
> Winston-Salem Journal 04-01-1917 page 10, col. 7.


On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> The "uncertain letters" below apparently are "us," so it reads:
> "....You shouldn't be so hard on us Lefty. Remember there is a board of censors here. that is the reason you got the nine yards of blank paper."
>
> I think this text is probably related to "the whole nine yards."  ...and I only am estimated alone to tell thee?

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