Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?

[Sam Clements]

That would be because it wasn't there.  I read that whole book.

sc
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?


> Whatever the reason, I did not find "whole nine yards" in her earlier
> book, _Forgive Us Our Press Passes_ (Prentice-Hall, 1962).
>
>  JL
>
> Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Sam Clements
> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From my earlier digging on her personal life, from memory.
>
> She was married in the 1940-1950's to a miltary guy. She got divorced. She
> married another military guy in the late 50's-early 60's. He was perhaps
> retired/older. But she was alway around the military.
>
> sc
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Wilton"
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:01 PM
> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>
>
>>I don't know anything about her personal life. The dust jacket of my copy
>>of
>> "The Doom Pussy" just states that she was divorced at the time of
>> publication. There's very little about her on the web. (Although I did
>> find
>> out that in her earlier career as an actor she played Darla's mother on
>> one
>> of the "Our Gang" shorts.)
>>
>> Still, from reading "The Doom Pussy" it's clear that she had a good
>> rapport
>> with the Air Force pilots she was writing about. It's a safe bet that any
>> phrase she puts in the mouth of a pilot is, if not an exact quote, at
>> least
>> something that a pilot might in fact have said.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>> Of
>> Sam Clements
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 7:35 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>>
>> Dave, or anyone else who has delved into the phrase.
>>
>> I know that Elaine Shepard's husbands were military. If I remember
>> correctly, her first husband was military from the 1940's and later. Her
>> second husband was Air Force. Anyone?
>>
>> sc
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dave Wilton"
>> To:
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 9:34 PM
>> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>>
>>
>>> Great find! It does appear to be genuine and while the gloss is rather
>>> specific, it's clearly being used in the familiar sense. The citation
>>> also
>>> further strengthens the idea that its origins are in US Air Force slang,
>>> NASA being very closely associated with the Air Force. (The article is
>>> about
>>> the slang of the space program.)
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>>> Of
>>> Sam Clements
>>> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:56 PM
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>>>
>>> Newspaper Archive, who has been(rightfully) much maligned the last few
>>> weeks
>>> while they're updating their workings, produces today this cite:
>>>
>>> Tucson(AZ) Daily Citizen, 25 April 1964, page 25, a story about NASA.
>>>
>>> "Give 'em the whole nine yards" means an item-by-item report on any
>>> project.
>>>
>>>
>>> Make of this what you will. It may not be what it seems. I just stopped
>>> by
>>> to report this.
>>>
>>> Sam Clements
>>>
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
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