Firstmention.com; Texas Proverbs

[Jonathan Lighter]

If it could be shown that this joke remained in circulation for the next ninety or a hundred years, it would be most significant - but as a possible allusive source, not as an 1855 ex. Till then....

  It seems more than a coincidence to me that this is the second joke we know of to involve fabric and the crucial phrase "the whole nine yards," albeit in a literal sense. Perhaps the bawdy Sandy MacTavish joke derives from the one about the giant shirt.

  Somebody needs to search out joke collections published before 1964.  Just don't expect to find a _figurative_ "whole nine yards."

  I repeat what I said long ago:  the hope of identifying a single allusive source with any certainty is probably a will o' the wisp.  An unusually early citation of the _idiom_ is the best we're likely to get.  (Prophecy: no such printed or written citation will be found before 1950-55, though "1955" wouldn't surprise me.)

  JL


Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Barry Popik
Subject: Re: Firstmention.com; Texas Proverbs
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In a message dated 8/23/2007 12:07:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dad at POKERWIZ.COM writes:

Has First Mention's take on the whole nine yards been seen before? Has it
been pre-pooh-poohed? As he says, it may be a wild-ass guess, but there
seems no denying his 1855 cite of the phrase unless he just totally made th=
e
whole thing up, which seems unlikely.
DAD

...
...
I posted that 1855 "whole nine yards" citation here over two years ago. It'=
s
completely irrelevant. First citations are important, but you have to look
at the whole picture. There's nothing at all between 1855 and 1964! To
develop a "whole nine yards" etymology based on the 1855 citation can
be worse than nonsense. People will reference this, and it will take a long
time to convince them of the truth. (See the "big apple" 1909 citation.)
...
For some reason, I can't get this stupid mondegreen out of my head today:
"The Gnat: They Drove Old Dixie Down."
...
FYI, I'm working on these Texas Proverbs:
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http://www.houblon.net/?page=3Dbre-imprim&id_breve=3D13
Ancient Texas proverb

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.

Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

...

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http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/jokes_du_jour/2005-June/000105.html

Texas Proverb

Life is NOT like a box of chocolates.

Life is like a jar of jalape=F1os.

What you do today

May burn your ass tomorrow.
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
A *Texas* Past Revisited: In Search of Texana Belle - Page
215s+proverb%22&ie=3DISO-8859-1&sig=3D07ziW5NfoIkvZTa3DVl6CLb2U80>by
B. Bryce Davis - History - 2006 - 326 pages
Resting from my strivings and anger, I had a fleeting desire to displace my
irritation by testing an old *Texas proverb*: "You will always find oil
under a Texas graveyard."
...
...
(GOOGLE BOOKS
A Time for Reflection: An Autobiography - Page
148s+proverb%22&ie=3DISO-8859-1&sig=3DbX3FzfIsH762TUHKawUi67BRLUs>by
William E. Simon - Biography & Autobiography - 2004 - 352 pages
For some reason, an old *Texas proverb* came to mind: "Now is the time to
raise
the cow's tail and look the situation squarely in the face.

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