Forgive me if it’s been noted elsewhere on the board, but congratulations, samclem, for antedating the Holy Grail of etymology!
Ace!
Some paperproof on the subject. Not the whole story yet, but atleast it’s something to point us away from the numerous wrong explanations.
Sam, you have my thanks.
Woot!
Actually, I think the source of “the whole nine yards” is “the length you get if you printed out all the ‘whole nine yards’ threads and laid them end to end.” 
Very nice. Good work sam.
That would be the whole 90 yards.
With the Air Force connection, you have to wonder if there might not be something to the machine gun ammo theory – except that, why don’t there seem to be any written sources that mention the “whole nine yards” in connection with machine gun ammo. This kind of thing can really drive you crazy if you let it.
Nice work samclem!
How did you find that mention? Were you searching newspaper archives for it, or was it a chance encounter?
Heck with the whole nine yards.
The real find is the Language Log blog!
Just blind luck. As many know, I pay to subscribe to NewspaperArchive. They add additional papers every day. About 2-3 weeks ago, they decided to upgrade their servers/software, and–what a nightmare. We haven’t been able to get their search engine to work very well since then, although it seems to get a litttle bit better every day.
As a test, every morning and every evening, I search for the phrase “the whole nine yards” to see how the search engine is progressing. And last night it was my turn in the barrel. At first I was sure it was a false hit. That’s how jaded you get after using newspaper databases for 6-8 years. But this time seemed to be the real thing. So I posted it to the American Dialect Society Mailing List. Ben Zimmer then gave it that great write-up over on Language Log.
In the end, the discovery of the origins of words and phrases is mainly continued contributions by many, many dedicated researchers. Each discovery helps. The ultimate solution will be when we discover what it was nine yards of.
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(I thought you might be hungry, after such good work.)
Oh, wow, I saw that on Language Log and thought of stopping by the SDMB to report it, but failed to notice it was actually samclem responsible for the discovery in the first place. Good job!
First of all, congratulations Sam. Bravo.
Regarding this phrase. All I can find online is that it is a vulgar reference. Perhaps to a joke punch-line?
Can someone (Cervaise clearly knows) fill me in?
Many variations, but always something like this. Guy joins an isolated (mining camp, lumber camp, military base, whatever). No women. After a few weeks, he’s desperate for sex. He goes to an old-timer and asks what the guys do for relief. The old-timer says “Out back there’s a barrel with a hole in it. That’s what we use.” Desperate, the new guy goes to the barrel, makes use of the hole, and to his amazement, has a great sexual experience. He goes to the old-timer and says “Wow, that was great. Now that I know about it, can I use it anytime I want?”
The old-timer says “Any night but Tuesday.”
“Oh, why not Tuesday?”
“Cause that’s your night in the barrel.”
HR Person: Any day of the week you can ask questions to this wishing well (or barrel) and it will provide the answer. Except Tuesdays.
New Employee: Why not Tuesdays?
HR Person: Tuesday is your day in the well.
Whoa, HR can suck the fun out of anything.
If he’s been there for a few weeks, how come he didn’t already know about the way he’d been spending his Tuesday evenings?
[Red Skelton]I just tell 'em folks, I don’t explain 'em[/Red Skelton]
<blink> You don’t know?
There was an Air Force base in the early 50’s that had to expand. They needed more room at the end of the runway for the new fighter jets that were taking off. The government began negotiations with the property owners affected, which included nine homeowners along a street of a new subdivision. Negotiations broke down, and the home owners got an attorney to represent them. The government opened eminent domain procedings to take the back yards of the homes in question which, if they had obtained all the yards, would have left the homes right at the edge of the base property. The homeowners countered by offering half their yards, but were unsuccessful in swaying the judge. After the decision issued, the dejected attorney came out to the waiting newsmen and said, “We had to give them the whole nine yards.”
(the fact that one of the residents was a dressmaker was pure coincidence, I’m sure…)
Very close, but not exactly right. The truth of it was, there were only five yards, but they happened to abut the middle of a golf course. The final result of the dispute is that the government took the “Hole Nine” yards.