Murphy's Law gets Ig Nobel award

[Michael Quinion]

The Ig Nobel people are certain where Murphy's Law came from, even if
Messrs Popik, Cohen and others are not.

Last night they awarded an Ig Nobel prize (for an achievement which
"cannot or should not be reproduced" -- discuss) to "The late John
Paul Stapp, the late Edward A. Murphy, Jr., and George Nichols, for
jointly giving birth in 1949 to Murphy's Law, the basic engineering
principle that 'If there are two or more ways to do something, and
one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, someone will do it'
(or, in other words: 'If anything can go wrong, it will')".

See http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>