[frantique]

The Rules
A trivia type statement regarding a popularly held belief will be posted. All statements will be numbered.

All you have to do is to respond whether it is true or false and to provide information to back up your response.

We have a list of statements with no answers, so we will trust that you have researched your response.

If anyone disagrees with a previous response and has the information to back up their challenge please post, noting the statement number you are challenging. So, you can come into this game at any time and go back and challenge any previous responses.

Once a response is received that appears to be well backed up we will post the next statement to keep the game going.

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Statement No. 1
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.

[frantique]

Statement No. 1
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.

[dsenette]

true and false!

the commonly accepted etymology of the phrase "sleep tight" is the rope explanation...this also seems to be the most prevalent definition

however

in archaic English the word "tight" was used to mean sound or soundly so the phrase "sleep tight" MOST LIKELY refers to this usage of the word.


http://ask.yahoo.com/20020917.html

[frantique]

Statement No. 2
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the 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."