Old saying!! The third part I never heard much else where.

JDseller · Jul 30, 2012

My Grand Father was aways quick with some old saying that would fit the moment. The following was his favorite one. I hear lots of people talk about Murphy and Murphy's laws but not many about O'Toole's commentary. DO any of you know about how either of these got started??? If you have worked on any type of machinery you all are familiar with Murphy's Law.

One version of Murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Murphy's corollary: At the worst possible time and in the worst possible way.

O'Toole's Commentary: Murphy was an optimist

donjr · Jul 30, 2012

We had McGillicutty's law. If it was a wrong- right situation, and you had a 50-50 chance of being right the first time, you really didn't. It was only a 30% chance. You usually second guessed yourself when you were right and changed it to wrong.

ShadetreeRet · Jul 30, 2012

I think they were started by a feller called
A.Nonymous. There are so many old sayings around and have been around for so long, no one knows how they got started. I had heard Murphy's law all my life, but it was my son told me about O'Toole's Commentary when he was in High School. There seems to be a lot of truth in that also.

wisbaker · Jul 30, 2012

I used to have a poster of Murphy's laws, its corollaries and postulates. Many are tractor related like "the availability of any part is inversely proportional to its need", "the $200 dollar picture tube will ALWAYS blow and protect the $.015 fuse" and "Experience gained is proportional to the amount and expense of tools ruined"

Dick2 · Jul 31, 2012

I liked my favorite uncle's saying best of all and I still use it on occasion:

"It all depends on who's ox is being gored!"

RLA · Jul 31, 2012

My Grandad always said

" He was a young man trapped in a Old Mans Body"

lloyd in sc · Jul 31, 2012

Mr. Murphy was a DOD employee that worked at the rocket sled trials out at the salt flats.
Quite a few days were spent getting everything ready and, when all set fired it off.
The recording device, however, wasn't turned on so no data was recorded.
He then said"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time."
He said in an interview in The Army Times that he never made any money from it but he was at least well known.
If memory served he was in fact a rocket scientiest.

Steve in VA · Jul 31, 2012

Home grown here:
A tool that works in theory, won't work in practice.
A tool that works in practice, won't work here.

Old saying!! The third part I never heard much else where.

JDseller

Well-known Member

donjr

Well-known Member

ShadetreeRet

Well-known Member

wisbaker

Well-known Member

Dick2

Well-known Member

RLA

Well-known Member

lloyd in sc

Member

Steve in VA

Well-known Member

Similar threads