[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Dead ringer comes from an old practice of burying the coffin with a string

Zat zounds rrrrreasonable to mee!

Seriously though...I have a question since you seem to have a handle on the meaning of obscure axioms.
Do you know the source of "The whole nine yards"?

I want to believe that it refers to a man's wardrobe where it was customary to be fitted for a jacket, vest and 2 pairs of slacks...requiring approximately nine yards of material. (i.e. "Give me the whole nine yards!")

I've been told there's another meaning but I just don't buy it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Unca Cecil Adams had a whole long ongoing discussion on this one . . . the answer apparently is that there IS no answer.

Cecil, What's the Origin of "The Whole Nine Yards"?

BTW, some folks (including my ggg grandfather) requested in their wills that a major vein be opened before they were buried, so that everybody was SURE they were dead. (Hope somebody read their wills some time before they were planted! Maybe that was the custom then. . . )

[Myrddin]

Do you know the source of "The whole nine yards"?

The attribution I've heard for "the whole nine yards" relates to the length of belt-fed ammo loaded onto a fighter aircraft. It was 27 feet in length. A pilot that expended his entire supply of ammo used "the whole nine yards".