question, Fred Re: [ADS-L] "What goes around, comes around" (1962 by Paul Crump) (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Thu Jul 26 17:35:25 UTC 2007


Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

If there is anything silly (in general, not specifically wrt to "whole
nine yards") about using Goole Books, it is doing so without recognition
of the fact that it is often very difficult to be sure about the dating
of a particular cite or quotation.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Stephen Goranson
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:30 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: question, Fred Re: [ADS-L] "What goes around, comes
> around" (1962 by Paul Crump)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      question, Fred Re: [ADS-L] "What goes around,
> comes around" (1962
>               by Paul Crump)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Quoting Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>:
>
> > On Tue, 24 Jul 2007, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> >
> >> The Yale Book of Quotations has this on pg. 527, Modern
> Proverbs #37,
> >> "What goes around, comes around," by Malcolm Braly, _On
> the Yard_ (1967).
> >
> > Very nice antedating, Barry!  Even with all its faults,
> Google Books
> > seems worth checking, although for "whole nine yards" it
> seems only to
> > lead to silliness.
>
> Fred and list,
>
> May I ask, are you saying that you consider to be silliness
> my proposal that when Admiral Land in 1942 spoke "for the
> whole nine yards," he provided the literal basis for the
> metaphorical usage? I would be interested in feedback from
> others also.
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> PS. LA Times 2 Jan 1941: The Miracle of Ships. "Nothing less
> than a shipbuilding miracle will satisfy me."--Admiral Emory
> S. Land, chairman United States Maritime Commission. Los
> Angeles and Long Beach, starting from scratch [and working
> 24/7], have gone "all out" to perform that miracle...
>
> Defence contracting seems to me a plausible setting for the
> origin, perhaps more so than limiting to NASA or Air Force
> (or Vietnam).
> Admiral Land testified on April 23; FDR was asked about
> Land's testimony, quoted, at a press confrence the very next
> day. Henry Kaiser, who never built a ship before, was part of
> the project. Kaiser wanted to build airplanes too, but for
> lack of steel allotment, was involved with H. Hughes who
> built the wooden "spruce goose."
> I have some ideas where to look further (and a couple ILL
> requests out), and welcome, on or off list, suggestions where
> to look. Counsel of despair seems less useful to me.
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
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