Montagnards & 9 yards proposal (death of Elaine Shepard)

[Gerald Cohen]

   This is just one small piece of the "whole nine yards" puzzle. ---

   In an earlier message, Stephen Goranson mentioned trying
unsuccessfully to contact Elaine Shepard concerning the use of "the
whole nine yards" in her book _Doom Pussy_. (Danang Officers' Open
Mess + a military patch depicting a cat eating an airplane worn by
some American bomber pilots).

    The website
<http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/411150.html>http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/411150.html
mentions that Ms. Shepard passed away in Sept. 1988. The relevant passage is:

>The earliest known reference to the phrase in print is as recent as
>1967 in 'The Doom Pussy', a novel about the Vietnam War by Elaine
>Shepard. In that context the phrase refers to the difficulties a
>character has with unentangling himself from an unwanted marriage.
>It isn't clear if the author coined the phrase herself, although the
>manner of its use in the story would suggest not. Ms. Shepard died
>in September 1998, so perhaps we will never know.


Gerald Cohen