presley@mhuxj.UUCP (Joe Presley) (11/27/85)
Does anyone know the origin of "to pull it off", as in "If we pull this off, we'll be sitting pretty"? Mail replies, please. -- Joe Presley (whuxl!presley)
rob@ptsfb.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) (11/28/85)
In article <328@mhuxj.UUCP> presley@mhuxj.UUCP (Joe Presley) writes: >Does anyone know the origin of "to pull it off", as in "If we pull this >off, we'll be sitting pretty"? Believe it or not, both expressions "to pull [something] off" and "sitting pretty" originated at the same time. In 1918, the year of the first Beaux Arts Ball in San Francisco (a huge Halloween costume party), a couple, Mary and Horst, had come up with a very fine horse costume that was sure to win first prize in the "couple with the best coordinated costume" category. After they left Mary's apartment, in costume, it began to rain, which is rather freakish for October in San Francisco. So they quickly trotted over to Horst's apartment, which was on the way, lest the costume get wet and become ruined. Horst's roommate suddenly lit up and said, "I've got an idea, I'll cover you two with that huge old table cloth we don't use any more; that will keep your costume dry." So he got out the old table cloth and tied it over the horse costume, and Mary and Horst set out for the Ball, once again. When they got to the Ball, they found out that the first prize for the couple with the best coordinated costume was a pair of very beautiful easy chairs, just what Mary and Horst could use in the apartment they were planning on getting together. But the rope had shrank so much in the rain, they could not undo the knots that kept the old table cloth over the costume. They tried and tried and tried, until Mary got the idea of trying to pull the table cloth off sort-of through the bonds, and then the bonds would be lose and fall off. She said to Horst, "If we can pull this off, we'll be sitting pretty."