1916 "the whole six yards," again from Kentucky

[Stephen Goranson]

Perhaps it was a typo. There are several other typos on that page. Perhaps it was intended to read: and it suits us to a tee.

Stephen

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 7:08 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] 1916 "the whole six yards," again from Kentucky

Thanks, Bonnie.
It may be that T. Y. stands for thank you, though I would not say that "suit us to a thank you" sounds familiar or easy, so perhaps that question could be kept open.

Also open questions: why six, why nine, and are the two related, and if so, how?

(There are newspaper mentions of "100 yards of telegraph tape," which I mention only as mere long-shot chance relevance.)

At first I thought the text referred to an editorial in a Livingston KY newspaper, but there does not appear (from Worldcat, anyway) to have been one then. So, I guess, it refers to the editorial in the previous issue of the same paper,  Sept. 15, 1916,  page 2, column 1, "Why?" If so, then it may be worth remarking that this editorial is pro-Democratic, on the Presidential election, as was the earlier (May 17, 1912) six yards use against both Taft and TR, also related to the Presidential election or convention.

Stephen Goranson
www.duke.edu/~goranson


________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Bonnie Taylor-Blake [b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 5:15 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] 1916 "the whole six yards," again from Kentucky

I had wondered:

> Well, Mr. Editor we must take our hat off to you. In your last week's
> editorial you sure did give them the whole six yards and it did suit
> us to a T.Y.  So, come again at your earliest convenience.

> But here's another question, no doubt unrelated to "the whole
> [six/nine] yards":  why the "T.Y." in "suit us to a T.Y."?

And, duh, now it occurs to me that "T.Y." signifies "thank you."

-- Bonnie

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