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From: rob@ptsfb.UUCP (Rob Bernardo)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Origin of "To Pull It Off"
Message-ID: <272@ptsfb.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Nov-85 10:27:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ptsfb.272
Posted: Thu Nov 28 10:27:18 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Nov-85 00:49:58 EST
References: <328@mhuxj.UUCP>
Reply-To: rob@ptsfb.UUCP (Rob Bernardo)
Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco
Lines: 27

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."