Comments on: Insane snowfall https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/ Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:32:10 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: TonyC https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531798 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:32:10 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531798 I’m in Atlanta, and it’s been appallingly cold this winter! We’ve even had snow! (little itty bitty flakes that melt before they hit the ground, admittedly, but real snow nonetheless!)

How far south do I need to go to stay warm all year! (as a lifelong atheist I need to acclimatize for my eternity in hell, you see 😀 )

]]> By: Monado https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531797 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:00:41 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531797 PZ Twittered that it was snowing in Morris, MN, this morning and that the Trophy Wife(TM) couldn’t get to work.

We’re having crazy weather in Toronto: bitterly cold for a couple of days, then thawing. It was -6 C yesterday, it was 3 today, raining tonight, going up to 9 tomorrow and then crashing down to -13 overnight. (Does anyone need a translation? 21, 37, 48, 9 F.)

]]> By: Doyle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531796 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:25:49 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531796 I have seen a number of proposed origins for the phrase, but it seems to have first gained widespread use in the military http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-nine-yards.html

]]> By: Cal Harth https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531795 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:51:12 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531795 ” It’s really freakin’ snowing out there.

Ermines and wolves … We always say that, don’t we?”

We always say that in Minnesota when it snows and blows like it did today. Everyone knows that Ermine are winter weasels turned white. The wolves are the white ones from the artic. The wind gusts twist and turn the blowing snow to look just like the them both.

]]> By: Brad https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531794 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:57:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531794 I saw an explanation that it was nine yards of material to make a wedding dress ie. the whole nine yards was formal, complete and official or something like that.

Also, a suggestion that the expression started with machine gun belts in WWII fighters being 27 feet long. Giving someone the actual or metaphorical whole nine yards was a Bad Thing from the receiver’s point of view.

]]> By: Silver Fox https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531793 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:51:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531793 Yeah, I used to think it was football, too – but there are ten yards for a 1st down. Wikipedia – and what I’ve read elsewhere – “nine yards was the length of an aircraft machine-gun ammunition belt.”

]]> By: Stephanie Z https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531792 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:28:10 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531792 It’s a several different kinds of metaphor. The origin depends on who you ask. I’ve always heard it in relation to kilts. If I recall correctly, Ben’s formal kilt is nine yards of tartan.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531791 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:14:54 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531791 Doyle! Seriously?????? It is not a football metaphor? No way!

Is it because the trenches were nine yards apart or something?

]]> By: Doyle https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531790 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:02:09 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531790 Just to go off on an irrelevant tangent, I believe “the whole nine yards” is a military metaphor rather than a sports metaphor.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531789 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:40:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/26/insane-snowfall/#comment-531789 The truth is we don’t get much snow in the twin cities, or for that matter, across most of Minnesota except in the Snow Tongue, a swath of land running southwest of Duluth.

But today, I drove 25 minutes in one direction had a couple of meetings, and then drove 2 hours in the other direction to get back home. It’s really freakin’ snowing out there.

Ermines and wolves … We always say that, don’t we?

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