BBB Etymology - Whole Nine Yards

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) will feature a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. This week, consider the (non-football) term "the whole nine yards". The phrase originates from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific. The .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet on the ground before being loaded into the fuselage of planes like the P-40 (shown above). If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole nine yards".