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Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 09:35:51 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
Organization: No Conspiracy Here...
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Subject: Re: Nudity in IF
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Knight37 wrote:

> Martin Julian DeMello <mdemello@kennel.ruf.rice.edu> babbled something
> about:
> >Knight37 <knight37@gamespotmail.com> wrote:
> >> But "the whole nine yards" means something entirely different than
> >> "the whole enchilada" or "the whole ball of wax".
> >> "the whole nine yards" is ironic, because "the whole" is NOT "nine
> >> yards", it's ten yards (ten yards = a first down in American
> >> Football), so "the whole nine yards" is ALMOST the whole thing but not
> >> quite.
> >> That irony is absent from "the whole enchilada".
> >> Or maybe I'm reading too much into this. :)
> >Way too much :) 'The whole nine yards' (assuming this isn't another
> >subtly ironic joke <g>) has an origin that while obscure certainly has
> >nothing to do with American Football.
> >http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_252.html for instance.
> That was pretty hysterical but it didn't really come up with a definitive
> answer to where the hell the phrase originated. ;)

As another useless datapoint, I've been told by old-time military personnel
that heavy weapons used to (maybe still do?) measure ammunition by the yard,
and the maximum available was nine yards.

I don't really believe that any more than I believe the suit analogy,
though...


