Nine Yards (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

A full text of "Rangy Lil" of uncertain date appears in [Col.] C. W. "Bill" Getz, ed., _The Wild Blue Yonder: Songs of the Air Force_ Vol. II (Burlingame, Calif.: Redwood Press, 1986), pp. RR 1-2 [sic].  Getz collected his material from unoffical mimeographed air force song collections going back before World War II.

  The "nine X" measurement does not appear, though a "Nine-X" rating for the poem would be entirely appropriate.

  "Rangy" seems like an odd choice of an adjective, but a quick search for a possibly relevant "*Raunchy Lil" revealed nothing of interest.

  JL
"Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
Subject: Nine Yards (UNCLASSIFIED)
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


In the writings of Robert A. Heinlein, you can find reference to a bawdy
poem/ballad called "Rangy Lil". Heinlein scholar Robert James has been
researching this poem and other similarly-mentioned ballads in
Heinlein's works, to see if they are "real" or sprang from Heinlein's
own imagination (apparently there were some of each).

Given the indications that "full/whole nine yards" may have origins in a
bawdy Andrew Mactavish joke, James' post to the alt.fan.heinlein
newsgroup (under the subject "Rangy Lil") may be of interest:



********Quote starts*******************************
I think I've found a piece of the genuine "Rangy Lil" poem. If
somebody has more of it, I'd like to know:


This is from a book called "The Cure of Folly" -- by Gordon Warme...


"The poem was about a copulating contest between two legendary
specialists in the art from the far northern reaches of Canada, Rangy
Lil and Pete. Here are a few fragments from mid-contest:


Lil tried shunts, and double shunts, / And tricks unknown to common
cunts, / But Pete kept reeling out more hose, / 'Til through the
portals of Lil's ass, / Nine feet of slimy penis passed. / They hung
Lil's pants on the shithouse door, / In honour of that gallant whore."
********Quote ends*******************************

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.heinlein/browse_frm/thread/3b8bc4
1ef24ee97f/97268993e0049450?hl=en#97268993e0049450

One observation from reading the thread. Poems like this have many
versions. No doubt this one was told or sung with "nine yards" instead
of "nine feet".
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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