whole nine yards

[Sam Clements]

From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: whole nine yards


> Rather than "IIRC" can you or anyone give a 1967 page number?
> Stephen Goranson

What follows is a snippet from a thread over at The Straight Dope Message
Board.  My good friend Arnold got a copy of the book and posted (from:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=293431&highlight=yards

[QUOTE BY ARNOLD]
My copy is:
(hardcover) Trident Press, New York 1967, as far as I can tell a first
edition

>From Chapter 3, "Bien Hoa (Peaceful Shore)" p.54 in my copy
"Smash" Crandell is a major in the 13th B-57 squadron which rotates between
Clark Air Base (Philippines) and Da Nang (Vietnam). We are talking about
Smash's marriage (he is now divorced):


Quote:
      The story began when he had absent-mindedly gone through a wedding
ceremony a couple of years before while snockered one Saturday night in San
Francisco. Slipping out of the knot was expensive but Smash was eventually
able to untangle what he called "the whole nine yards."


[END QUOTE BY ARNOLD]


But I"ve also read a poster saying they had a 1967 edition by another
publisher, and it did NOT contain the first cite.  Of course, it also could
depend on how well someone searched for the cite.


Sam Clements