Oct. 17, 1957

It was recently stated here that the origin of Murphy’s Law, a derisive bit of whimsy among airplane people, was unknown. The “law” states, “If an aircraft part can be installed incorrectly, someone will figure out how to do it.”

Now the man who formulated this precept of human fallibility, George B. Murphy of Venice, an aircraft factory inspector, has come forward to acknowledge responsibility. He has also recounted a recent experience bearing on the same subject.

A young machinist brought him a part to inspect and he found it was out of tolerance by .001 of an inch and rejected it.

The youth insisted it was in tolerance because he handled .005.

Murphy told him he didn’t have .005 but .0005.

The young machinist argued so Murphy said, “OK, here comes Marty, your foreman. Since you don’t know how many thousandths there are in an inch, ask him.”

The youth did so and Marty looked blank for a moment, then smiled confidently and said, “Why heck, anybody knows that there are 10,000 in one inch. Right, Murph?”

Murphy confessed, “Well, to tell you the truth, they’re such little bitty devils I never did count them.”

CULTURAL NOTE–A lady named Ethel and her husband, Bob, were trying to settle on a place of interest to visit and Ethel said she’d never been to the Huntington
Library in San Marino–how about going there?

Whereupon daughter Stephanie remarked, “That’s sure a long way to go to check out a book.”

WHENEVER HE drives on the freeways Tom Cracraft is keenly conscious of the dangers of following too closely and he tries to keep several car lengths behind
the auto in front.

But lately he has been wondering about this procedure. Inevitably, a driver in the next lane, who obviously abhors a vacuum, cuts in ahead of him.

When Tom drops back to avoid being sideswiped another joker scrambles in ahead of him. And so on.

It hasn’t  happened yet but Tom is beginning to get the feeling that one of these days he’s going to be driving backward.

ONLY IN L.A.–A lady named Betty got into a delightful if clinical conversation the other day in a doctor’s waiting room with two little girls of Japanese descent.

They gaily confided they had a big sister and baby brother at home and that their father had said he would kill himself if the little brother wasn’t a boy and that they were going to have their tonsils out and get all the ice cream they wanted.

But what fascinated Betty was the 4-year-old’s account of her sore arm. She’d recently been vaccinated and her baby brother had knocked off the scab with a chopstick.

AT RANDOM–The last two letters of the first word of the beachfront “Hotel Monica” sign were blacked out the other night…

A news story stated the Defense Department will cancel a contract with the Martin Aircraft Co. and John Richards has a suggestion for the firm: Change the name to Martian and operate accordingly…

Feature of Paul Heinley’s booth at the decorators show is a TV set on which 3D color slides showing various shutter installations are shown. All day long people stop and exclaim,
“Oh, look, color TV!” Actually the thing is done with mirrors and a projector behind the set with a revolving drum containing the slides The topper came yesterday. A man said, “That’s the best color TV I ever saw–what channel is it?” He was told it was a private channel…

The jacket of Norah Loft’s novel “Scent of Cloves” due out next month, will be scented with the stuff. It was inevitable I suppose…

Lost opportunity note: The menu at the Nikabob contains no shishkabob.