"the whole nine yards" 1942

[Dave Wilton]

Have you ever attended Senate committee meetings? Usually, the room is empty
with the exception of the chair, maybe one or two other senators, the
witness, and a few staffers and clerks. Senators come and go, showing up to
ask a few questions and then leaving (the fact that five are listed in the
transcript does not mean all were present when the words in question were
uttered). Chances are there were about ten people in the room when this
utterance was made.

Occasionally, there will be a high-profile hearing (the ones you see on the
news) or one that is of intense interest to lobbyists (e.g., markups of
appropriations bills) and attendance will be higher. But this hearing, based
on the snippet given here, sounds like the former type.

And remember that in 1942, Truman was an obscure backbencher. He was only
beginning to make a name for himself among Washington pols in 1942 (for
committee hearings like this one measuring the progress of the war effort).
His presence is pretty insignificant to the question at hand.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Stephen Goranson
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 3:23 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "the whole nine yards" 1942

Of course the 1942 use of "the whole nine yards" refers to nine shipyards.
The
first usage was literal and emphatic; later uses would be metaphorical. As
for
the suggestion that practically no one attended this hearing: besides
senators
including Truman and five others, and at least two admirals, perhaps senate
staffers (including chief counsel Fulton and assistant Clark), perhaps a
stenographer (perhaps professional and competent), perhaps representatives
of
Walsh-Kaiser Co. Inc., makers of many millions of dollars on this deal,
perhaps
repesentatives of labor unions, with whom Admiral Land had rocky relations,
perhaps a reporter, perhaps a citizen interested in the war effort. That the
phrase recurs in Congress Defense appropriations hearings, and in Test Pilot
proceedings, and in a graphic drafting journal, and in military use may
provide
clues where to look for more occasions. By now I think it is fairly clear
that
"yards" here does not mean thirty-six inch units (nor...Montagnards); items
of
an ensemble, rather than identical units of linear measure. (Hence, earlier
quotes of linear measure yards, I suggest, become irrelevant to the case.)

Speaking of test pilot proceedings, here's a longer piecing-together
(possibly
with mistaken sequence of text blocks on that page) of the 1966
google-snippet
reported by Bonnie:

1966 U.Mich. copy:  [page 176 top] "aircraft, or if the systems are so dense
that the aircraft is vulnerable, or the system is vulnerable, you can have
an
aircraft that you can lose pretty easily. I think the P-51 of World War II
might be an example. One system was tht [sic, the] coolant
system that was vulnerable and if you lost that you were in trouble.
Suppression, if you lack a little bit of speed and you lack surprise and
your
systems are vulnerable, then you better have an awful lot of ability to ...
A World War II fighter flying at 300 miles an hour, hit by a bullet,
chances are
you would get a couple of neat holes in it. But when you step that up to 600
knots and get a prag in there, it is apt to tear, in addition to going
through
some dense or vulnerable systems.
.....There are several answers to vulnerability problems produced by
subsystem
arrangements. Self-sealing tanks were touched on this morning.
Armor plating around vital areas can help protect sub-systems.  Certainly
emergency mechanical linkage for control systems is an item we are all
interested in.  Then two-engines, two pilots, and the rest, the nine yards
of
things that we have really all been aware of for a long time and should pay
a
lot more attention to..." [keywords include: southeast asia, dong xoai,
phuoc
binh...]

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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