Sky Hook (1971)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated > Thu, 18 Dec 2003 22:49:41 -0600,  Dave Hause <
> dwhause at JOBE.NET> writeth
>
> Not basketball, but I think I remember seeing it in 50s or 60 science
> fiction, probably Robert Heinlein or Arthur C. Clark.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
>   The LOS ANGELES TIMES should have coverage of Lew Alcindor's college
> career at UCLA in the 1960s.  Was the "sky hook" invented there?

Thats "Arthur C. Clarke" and yes, I have a vague memory that he once used the
phrase.

The term "sky hook" has an interesting history.

At one time it was classified!  DOD had a Project Skyhook starting in the
late 1940's which involved flying helium balloons.  Unfortunately the project was
kept classified for years, with the result that a large number of UFO
sightings which were actually Skyhook balloons went unexplained.

The earliest written citation I can find is 1948.  Volume I number 1 of the
fanzine _Skyhook_, edited by Redd Boggs, was the issue for winter, 1948.
Reference: URL
http://fanac.org/fanzines/SkyHook/

The ultimate origin of "sky hook" is, I am pretty sure, folklore.  Possibly a
tall tale, "I had no other way to hold it, so I grabbed a sky hook and...".
See, for example, URL
http://www.prosoundweb.com/lighting/tech_reference/bill/terms/terms3.shtml
"Hasn't everybody at some time wished they had a Sky Hook to magically hang
something. Especially where there is no fly space!"

 Another possibliity is that it started out as a practical joke of the
snipe-hunt variety, as in the following account (dated September 1967 but the gag
could be decades older):

<begin quote>
Now remember, I am right out of boot camp and don't know much about anything.
So while I was walking around the ship, Gunner's Mate Truett Brannen asked me
to help him so I said sure. He was working on one of the 3-inch guns which
looked very big to me and said he needed a sky hook. I asked where it was and he
said it was up front.

So I went up front. Never being up front before I found myself on the bridge.
This little old man was sitting in a big chair on the port side. I was
looking high and low for the sky hook. The man watched me for a while. I saw him
looking at me so I said "Hi, how are doing." He asked, "Can I help you?" So I
told him I was looking for a sky hook. He the asked who wanted it, so I turned
around on the bridge and looked back so I could see the guy who sent me up
their. At the time I did not now his name so I pointed to him. There were three
guys laughing and pointing to me but they could not see who I was with.

As soon as this man came around the corner to see who I was pointing at
everyone ran. The man the said "You don't know who I am, do you?" I said no I
didn't. He then told me he was "The Old Man," the captain. He said that I should
get back to work and tell the guy that sent me looking for the sky hook to come
and see him. I never heard what happened but after awhile Brannen and I became
friends and I began to learn navy protocol. Yes sir, my naval education had
begun.
<end quote>
from URL http://www.ussnoxubee.com/skyhook.html

A similar hoary naval gag is to give a new sailor a hook and tell him to snag
the mail buoy as it goes by.  Other professions have similar gags.  A
one-time boss of mine once, with a straight face, put in a requisition for a "bit
bucket".  In the printing business a new apprentice is told to go get a "type
stretcher" (I imagine this one is falling into oblivion now that Linotype
machines are getting to be museum pieces.)

                 - James A. Landau