h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Kilroy was a Navy ship-construction inspector who'd chalk "Kilroy was here" in various areas of a ship to prove he'd checked it. While crossing the Atlantic, servicemen kept coming across "Kilroy was here" in the most unlikely places; it became a catchphrase and got written all over Europe.
PLT, Mick.

Thank you Mick! I'd heard that & was the explination that made the most sense, but one never knows. -Pan

I've heard that OK goes all the way back to 1840 or so, and I've heard several explanations for it.

One is "oll korrect", as already noted. Another was "Old Kinderhook", the New York site where one of the US political parties held its convention in or around 1840, and "OK" became the party's rallying cry for that election. Slogans were quite colorful back then; I remember a Democratic one that was brought up on Jeopardy! some years back: "We Polked 'em in '44, we'll Pierce 'em in '52!"

I had several books on word and phrase origins, but they all seem to be buried under an avalanche of baseball score sheets. Shame on them.

Walter,
The Chinese have a saying (okay they have lots of sayings, but here's one of them), "A man who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, but a man who never asks is a fool for the rest of his life". A more western version is "Better to ask a silly question than make a silly mistake". Your question was neither foolish or silly. Best regards, Norman. PS, I have a life too.

LOL!!! I'm glad we're so adult here. Word origins make me insane. just when I 'learn' one that makes sense, another explanation comes along & I'm back to my same old confused self. ~Pan (well, not REALLY old today someone seriously guessed my age at ,"35 or less, but surely no more!" made my 43 yr old bones feel much better) BTW does anyone know how the Cherokee came to be called that? (being 1/2 Cherokee & even having an Indian name (Two Feathers) I'm too embarressed to ask an Elder of my Tribe! I agree that you don't seem silly by asking a question...but I do with regard to this!

Pan,

Ken Martin has an excellent site, History of the Cherokee, which includes the following:

The first recorded European contact with the Cherokee was Hernando De Soto's expedition of 1540. Records of the expedition refer to the tribe as "Chalaque", probably from the Mobilian trade language (a corrupted Choctaw jargon used by the tribes of the Southeast), probably meaning "cave people". This word in the southern Cherokee dialect was pronounced "Tsa-la-gi" but in the eastern area pronounced "Tsa-ra-gi", from which the name "Cherokee" is derived. The Cherokee called themselves "Ani-Yun-wiya", the principal people. The Cherokee also referred to themselves as "Ani-Kituhwagi", the people of Kituhwa -- an ancient town which was probably the original nucleus of the tribe.

(The preceding paragraph is Copyright 1996 Ken Martin.)

The entire site, which is quite good, is:

http://pages.tca.net/martikw/

-- Charlie the Zebra
http://members.aol.com/charliezeb/

Why thank you so very much C the Z!!! You have an interesting way of popping up just when I need you! (usually for a good laugh!) I hereby dub thee; "A GOOD MAN!" ~Pan

Thanks for the dubbing, Pan. As long as thou dost not overdub me ... (the jury is out as to whether rub-a-dub-dubbing me would be acceptable)