? 1960-1964 "the whole nine yards" ?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> According to Google Books:
>
> Michigan's Voices: A Literary Quarterly & Arts Magazine
> 1960
> Item notes: v. 2
> Page 41
> ... real civilized living in the modern urban home - then the dog would
> catch on and go ki-yi-yi-ing from one to the other of the shouting
> pyjama clad participants - mad, mad, mad, the consequence of house, home,
> kids, respectability, status as a college professor and the whole nine
> yards, as a brush salesman who came by the house was fond of saying, ...

Ah, the brush salesman. Does that mean we now have to investigate the
manufacturing practices of the Fuller Brush Company, to see if they used nine
yards of yarn to make a mop?


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org