# The whole nine yards **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 23, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393 "2004-12-23T21:49:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393/41 "2005-01-18T06:34:27Z")
Here’s a woman who claims that the character of Smash from _Doom Pussy_ is a fictionalized version of her father: [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0962838802/103-9296439-0757437?\_encoding=UTF8&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0962838802/103-9296439-0757437?%5Fencoding=UTF8&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393/42 "2005-01-18T06:38:31Z")
It’s the first review on that page (which is the page from Amazon for _Doom Pussy II_). ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393/43 "2005-01-18T13:41:35Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Note the “what he called”. Great googa-mooga! Could the bridal-veil theory have been right all along? Unprovable because it was never objective in the first place? Seems to me that this theory would have more weight if the phrase wasn’t used in _other_ places in the book, where presumably it has less to do with weddings. However… **Arnold** ’s quote _is_ the first one in the book, and the excerpt that **Xgemina** quoted _could_ be interpreted as being a related to a bridal veil (hairnet, veil, what’s the difference?), and the quote I Googled needs a little more context (bedsheets, veils, what’s the difference?). Soo… I await **Arnold** ’s next report with bated breath. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393/44 "2005-02-13T09:12:48Z")
Apropos of nothing (i.e. this is the most recent thread on this topic, so I’m adding this here), I’ve just run across yet another hypothesis on the origins of TWNY. This time, the CANOEists[sup]1[/sup] are getting into the act. Or rather, are coming up with variations ([here](http://www.yacht-volant.org/SailorTalk/seaterms01.html)) since there is at least one idea out there based on ships’ yards. > [@](#): > > A ship-of-the-line of the late 16th to the middle 18th century always had three masts with three primary yards on each mast, the main yard, t’gallant yard and tops’l yards. In those days, and even into the early 19th century, it was rare for a ship-of-the-line to have any other yards. … > > For a sailing ship to complete a tacking maneuver, the attitude of the yards on the masts would be changed in a particular sequence. In the early stages of the tacking maneuver, the captain could change his mind and abort without any real consequence. However, once the ninth yard was changed over, attempting to abort would usually put the ship in stays (dead in the water, head to wind). And, as you might guess, that wasn’t a good thing to happen. > > In battle some captains would make use of this when maneuvering for position with an inexperienced opponent. They would start a tack to fake the opponent into a corresponding move. At the last moment, they would abort the tack to catch the opponent in a very weak position. A winning captain would always be watching his opponent’s primary yards, knowing that the other captain wasn’t fully committed to the maneuver until the he went with “the whole nine yards”. I trust there’s no need to discuss its bogosity in this forum. The page also has a rather questionable derivation of “dressed to the nines” for those interested. [sup]1[/sup]CANOE = Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-nine-yards/281393.md?page=2)