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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3680)	11/20/2000 1:27:19 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 4710

Hi Christopher, Nice to see not everyone is obsessing over the Florida Supremes! As far as the whole nine yards, you are correct that it did apply to the 50 calibre belts in the B-29. There is another obscure reference to 19th Century British agricultural measure, a metes and bounds, and rods sort of thing, but I think the term came into common parlance in WWII. I was surprised that the www.etymologic folks haven't modified their position on this. It's an old flaw in their database.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3680)	11/20/2000 4:11:52 PM
From: Paul Ma	Respond to of 4710

I got that question wrong cause I thought what you thouught. Paul

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3680)	11/25/2000 5:28:58 AM
From: On the QT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4710

Then there is: "The whole nine yards All of it - full measure. It has been said that tailors used nine yards of material for top quality suits (or shirts), but this is difficult to confirm. Concrete trucks have a nine cubic yards capacity and this has been put forward as an explanation of the origin. To me at least this seems an attractive but, as the phrase pre-dates concrete trucks, hardly plausible explanation. I worked for a time on the construction of the complex elevated motorway intersection Spaghetti Junction in the English West Midlands. This was made largely from concrete and unexplained short measure from the delivery vehicles was rife. For evidence witness the unusually large number of concrete driveways around there. mstahl@nothnbut.net also reports that 'World War II aircraft B-52 bomb bay had a total of nine square yards of bombs. Hence, give them the whole nine yards'. The phrase had clearly been part of the language for some time before WW II though. For more phrases and sayings visit the Phrase Finder". shu.ac.uk

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3680)	1/4/2001 4:18:49 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4710

Hi, Christopher. It's been ages since I visited this thread. It somehow disappeared from my bookmarks and I forgot it. Have re-bookmarked it. In the meantime, although I have no On Topic comments (I'll compensate by thinking along these lines; it was fun when it was lively here and I was playing), I'll give a link, posting it to you both because it mentions you, and because you won't mind, I know, being the occasion of my offering a particular suggestion that we help a particular thread make it to the hot list. A worthy idea. Message 15125461 (Below is the link directly to the thread i'm commending to Grammar's attention): Subject 50522