"Murphy's Law" Lead

Fred Shapiro fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sat Nov 12 14:15:55 UTC 2005


I wonder whether someone on this list can help me with a "Murphy's Law"
lead.  Barry Popik discovered "Reilly's Law," identical to Murphy's Law,
mentioned in a story by Lee Correy in Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb.
1955; this is the third oldest documented version of ML I am aware of.  I
have just learned that Correy, writing under the name G. Harry Stine,
published a 1994 essay entitled "Murphy's Law Revisited" in "The Alternate
View" Vol. 114 No. 10 of Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact.

Does anyone have ready access to the 1994 Analog Science Fiction / Science
Fact and can look there to see whether Correy gives any solid information
supporting the Edwards Air Force Base connection with ML?  It appears to
me now that Correy was not an unrelated science-fiction vector of ML, but
rather was probably familiar with John Paul Stapp and his work at Edwards.

Fred Shapiro



More information about the Ads-l mailing list