It comes from Real Estate agents. There are generally nine houses on a
block, and if they have all of the listings for the block, then they have
"The whole nine yards."
This term is an old British sailing expression. The "Whole Nine Yards"
refers to having all nine sails opened on the yard-arms. This is three sails
each on a three-masted scooner.
-----
I believe cement trucks have a capacity of less than 7 cubic yards. Dan's
is the one i've heard most - a lot of urban folklore, like "Kilroy was
here", came out of the great wars.
">
duck
At 03:22 PM 11/4/96 -0800, CobraBoy wrote:
>At 3:04 PM -0800 11/4/96, Dan Kohn wrote:
>>>Some interesting trivia:
>
>cool stuff Dan...
>
>>>The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South
>>>Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber
>>>machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded
>>>into
>>>the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got
>>>"the
>>>whole 9 yards."
>
>my understanding is that the term comes from the total coverage area of
>cement in a cement truck.
>
>We used the whole 9 (square) yards...
>
>Tim
>
>--
>
>"The future masters of technology will have to be
> lighthearted and intelligent.
>The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb."
> - Marshall McLuhan 1969
>
> <> tbyars@earthlink.net <>
>
*** "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--" - last words of General
John B Sedgewick during the Battle of Spottsylvania, 1864