Pros from Dover

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/22/02 4:42:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
TheEditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG writes:

> A subscriber has asked about "pros from Dover", which he has found
>  in the Tom Clancy book "Rainbow Six" and which seems to mean
>  experts. I know that it was used in the 1970 Robert Altman film
>  M*A*S*H. Can anyone take it back further or give me a pointer to
>  where it might have come from?

You didn't give the context of either quote, so the following is a guess:

Dover is the name of a publishing company that for over half a century has
been turning out high-quality paperback reprints of mathematical and
scientific books.  It is a pretty safe bet that any given expert in math,
physical sciences, or engineering has several dozen Dover reprints in her or
his home library.

    - Jim Landau