"Murphy's Law" antedating 1943 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Does the fact that there was no "Air Force" as such in 1943 call this
into question?  -- It was the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1943, I believe.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 8:51 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Murphy's Law" antedating 1943
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Murphy's Law" antedating 1943
>
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> --------
>
> Wow -- one of the best antedatings I have ever seen!  Stephen had
> already pretty much disproved the standard etymology for the term
> "Murphy's Law," but this puts the nail in the coffin.  Congratulations
> to Stephen!
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:48 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "Murphy's Law" antedating 1943
>
> Seeds of Hope: an Engineer's World War II Letters,
> By William O. Sabel (West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press,
> 1999).
>
> page 99 [letter date]:
> March 26, 1943
>
> page 100:
> " My platoon is busy building a warehouse at the Air Force Supply
Depot
> [in the
> Pacific campaign] We also put up a steel Quonset hut 20 X 100 feet and
> poured
> the concrete floor today....I feel if I am not personally watching
> every move
> the men make, something will go wrong and it usually does--Murphy's
> Law. They
> can't look ahead and see the consequences of their present actions."
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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