"Whole Nine Yards" and Occam's Razor, etc.

[Sam Clements]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: "Whole Nine Yards" and Occam's Razor, etc.


>I have a somewhat different theory up on which I might even try to follow.
> ;-) If you look at that 1855 judge/shirt joke, it really isn't funny
> unless
> the "whole nine yards" phrase is recognizable from another context. In
> other
> words, I can imagine that at the telling of the joke the voice is raised
> during the pronouncing of "the whole nine yards" as the point of the joke
> is
> to make ironic reference to the phrase. That would say to me there was at
> that time a phrase "the whole nine yards" in common use that was being/had
> been used in another context and that the joke makes fun of >that
> expression.
> DAD

If it was in "common use" in the mid-1800's, why has it never been found in
print until 1964?

Sam Clements

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