Military History Institute at Carlisle, PA ("Murphy," cont.)

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     I took a 2 a.m. Greyhound, which got me into Carlisle, PA at 7:30 a.m.
It was a long walk to the War College; the last bus out was 3:30 p.m., so I
got there about 8:30 a.m. and called it quits at 2:30 p.m.  I got back home
about 10 p.m.
    The Military History Institute's web page is at
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/.  Carlisle is a nice, historic American
town.  I read all the history markers and visited the Molly Pitcher
tombstone.  Crumb & Co. has a cookie jar museum that I didn't pass up--the
cookies were good, too.
     Jim Thorpe Hall is located right opposite the MHI library--it's named
after that octothorpe guy.  There a fine Omar Bradley Museum in the same
building as the library.
     Actually, I didn't do much work on "Murphy's Law."  I couldn't locate
DESERT WINGS in the periodicals section, then went through other periodicals
instead.  I spent the first few hours checking for books on "slang" and "war
cartoons" and "recruiting posters."  Then I spent a few hours with the card
file index to some of the periodicals (about 1930-1950).  I made some copies,
then checked DESERT WINGS briefly, and went home.  Maybe I'll go back next
week for another day.

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MURPHY'S LAW (continued)

     "Murphy's law" wasn't in the first reel of DESERT WINGS.  A lot of
issues were missing, but I've read up to November 1953.  The other reels look
like a complete set for the rest of the 1950s.
     The periodical U. S. AIR SERVICES ("Feature Aeronautical Magazine,
Commercial and Military, Devoted to the Development of Aeronautics--Civil and
Military--in the United States") looked promising.  But no "Murphy's Law" in
the issues I read of 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953.
      There was also no "Murphy's Law" (and no "John Paul Stapp") in the card
file.
      The book EDWARDS: FLIGHT TEST CENTER OF THE U.S.A.F. (1962) by John
Dudley Ball, Jr. sounded promising.  It had Stapp--but no Murphy!
      Thie following is in time for summer and is useful for "take a long
walk off a short pier"--a variant of "take a walk!" and "take a hike!" that I
couldn't find recorded in my phrase books.
      From DESERT WINGS, 27 July 1953, pg. 7, col. 1:

     _The Summer Wit_
(...)
     Aside from the fact that the temperature daily reaches the point
necessary for frying eggs (or personnel), life is pleasant with one
exception--a person we all know.
     You are walking back from the Post Office, or the PX, or the Aid Station
(it doesn't really matter), and he sidles up to you, slaps you on your damp
back, and says, "Hot enough for you?"
     Before you have a chance to fire back a cleverism like "drop dead" or
"go take a long walk on a short pier," he follows up with, "think the frost
will hurt the rhubarb?"
     Waxing wise, our friend lets you in on a bit of inside information,
stating, "It's not the heat.  It's the humidity."  And as he moves off across
the desert, he admits that it is hotter than down yonder.