Thursday, January 3, 2008

The Whole Nine Yards


Can you believe it?!!??  I FINALLY found out what the saying 'the whole nine yards' means.  I cannot tell you how many people I have asked!  I found out during the Goodwin Christmas Extravaganza (that just means many Goodwins are crammed into a small area eating lots of food) when I complained out loud that I may go to my grave not knowing what the nine yards consisted of, as in, nine yards of WHAT!?!?  My brother-in-law Karl Connolly overheard me and said the magic words, "Hey, I know what that means."
  
No way.

But he did.  Apparently, in World Wars I & II, ammunition for the machine guns that they used were attached to nine yards of canvas.  If a soldier was going to really give the enemy everything they had, they shot THE WHOLE NINE YARDS of ammo, as in "Give them the whole nine yards, soldier!!!!!" 

Woohoo!  Party, party! (scroll up to photo of fireworks for effect)  I am satisfied, but yet a little empty, and a bit lost that I finally know the origin.  I need to find a new stumper to mull over.  I wonder who decided it would be nine yards instead of, say, ten?

By the way, it is warming up here in Utah.  On my run this morning (which was an adventure), it was 25 degrees instead of the 12-17 degrees it has been on previous runs this week!  Balmy, I am sure...
Have a great Thursday!

4 comments:

Luisa Perkins said...

Um, Anj, I'm sorry, but that theory has been disproved. I found the debunking of it when I tried to answer that question for you in November. Sorry to be a party pooper.

eebs said...

Angie, I can't believe what knuckle heads we are that we couldn't get together in provo. oh well, we'll just have to make it up through electronic means. luv u, erin

Luisa Perkins said...

Ummm, did my first comment sour you on blogging forever? I hope not!

xxoxoxoxoxox

anjmae said...

oh no, working on it...