whole nine yards and "Smash" Chandler

[Jonathan Lighter]

Moreover, "The DOOM Pussy" was reviewed (somewhat unfavorably) in the New York Times Book Review - IIRC (always a risky business these days). Don't know if the phrase was included there.

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: whole nine yards and "Smash" Chandler
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>The Ft. Walton paper covered that reunion for weeks. Shepard was there.
>Everyone was there.

I think there were reunions in various years. I think the one with Shepard
was 1967 maybe, the one with "Smash" 1968. But maybe I misremember.

The piece with "Smash" was interesting in that it suggests that the book
was well known within the USAF community, which favors the possibility that
this book itself may have popularized the expression in question within the
USAF.

However, a credible message on this list a while back recalled a personal
encounter with "the whole nine yards" spoken by a USAF officer, in MO in
late 1964.

I don't know where "Smash" came from; maybe it's possible to find out, but
I never tried.

-- Doug Wilson


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