Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 17:29:11 -0600

From: Kat Rose Kat.Rose[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SPOT.COLORADO.EDU

Subject: wing and a prayer



Tom Beckner said;

...I always thought the "wing" was related to another

expression, "to wing it," to act spontaneously or to

function without some sense of formal knowledge or

experience. The "prayer" was a bit more than hope, though;

it meant a literal prayer to a power greater than oneself

for protection or for success in the unknown venture or

unchartered territory.

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This is how it was used in my corner of the Midwest (north-

central Illinois, on the Mississippi), where the expression

was "get by on a wing and a prayer." The sense was finding a

"creative," unusual, or unexpected way to meet a need or solve

a problem and trusting/asking Providence to give the solution

greater efficacy than it might be expected to have. I hear the

phrase much less here in Colorado, but when I do hear it, it

has this same sense. (*Many* people have moved here from the

Midwest, so the sense/meaning may have migrated with us.)

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Jason Krantz said:

...WWII yielded aircraft that looked incapable of flight,

[that] looked like they were supported on one side by a wing

and on the other by the hopes and prayers of the crew.

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I had never heard this, but it fits perfectly the connotation

of the phrase as I have heard it used.

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[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] -- ---

Kat Rose Kat.Rose[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]spot.Colorado.edu

My words, my rights, my responsibility