Heard on Springer: "in the _first_ beginning..."

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> In the big inning

Way back when, there was an anecdote (published in Reader's Digest?)
to the effect that there was once some kind of contest, or maybe just
a desire, to produce the first printed edition of the Bible that would
be totally free of any typos whatsoever. After the first copy of the
"perfect edition" of the Bible had rolled off the presses, it was
presented to the head of the publishing house. He opened the book to
Genesis 1:1, where he read:

"In the _big inning_, God created the heavens and the earth"

When it was that I read this I can't recall, except that it was at
least as far back of the '50's. Larry's cites are the first time that
I've come across _In the big inning_ in a (pswaydo-)biblical context
since that time. IAC, the story immediately struck me as probably
apocryphal, since I hadn't heard before - or since, for that matter -
that typos were a major problem WRT printing the Bible.

BTW, doesn't "big inning" have some special meaning in a baseballic
context? (I prefer "America's game" to the "national pastime.") Or is
"inning" a faux ami?
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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