Kilroy Was Here
Kilroy was a mysterious World War II soldier, probably American, who traveled all over the world scrawling the immortal phrase Kilroy was here wherever a flat surface presented itself. Often, the phrase was accompanied by a simple drawing of a big-nosed man peering over a wall. Clearly, the graffiti were scrawled by thousands of different soldiers, not a single one named Kilroy. But did Kilroy actually exist? And if so, did he start the fad?
The New York Times, on 24 December 1946, credited James J. Kilroy of Quincy, Massachusetts with starting the craze. Kilroy was an inspector at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in that city, and used a yellow crayon to write Kilroy was here on items that he had inspected. The graffiti became a common sight around the shipyard, and was imitated by many of the other 14,000 shipyard workers when they were drafted and sent around the world.
Bryson cites the above account and also mentions another possible origin. A Sergeant Francis Kilroy of the US Army Air Transport Command who scrawled the immortal phrase on boxes that were to be shipped abroad. Again, the phrase was picked up by other GIs and spread to everywhere from Murmansk to Espiritu Santo.
The cartoon usually associated with Kilroy has quite a different origin. It is originally British, named Mr. Chad, and apparently predates the Kilroy phrase by a few years. It commonly appeared with the phrase Wot, no ------? underneath, with the blank filled in with whatever happened to be in short supply at the time (example: Wot, no spam?). Sometime during the war, Chad and Kilroy met and in the spirit of Allied unity merged, with the British drawing appearing over the American phrase. The OED2 lists Chad's origin as "obscure," but it may have been created by George Edward Chatterton, a cartoonist in civilian life who spent the war years in the Royal Air Force.
I hope Westy keeps his KillRoy pic as his signature. I love it and it suits him, don't you think?
Back to eagles..This afternoon 1 or 2 eagles spent at least 3 hours in or around the the Kent,WA. eagle nest that has a web cam aimed at it...
At times I thought eggs were being laid or incubated, but not yet it appears....
On that thought I'll say Goodnight all...Hope you had a good day after Valentines Day....LOL..
.....Westy.....