Why is "Cloud 9" different from all other clouds?

Amethyst

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Apr 22, 2018, 9:37:22 PM4/22/18

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A friend told me he was on "Cloud 9".
I asked what that meant.
He said it means he is happy.
I asked why?
He didn't know why.
Do you?

Horace LaBadie

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Apr 22, 2018, 11:09:46 PM4/22/18

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In article <pbjdcb$ln6$1...@gioia.aioe.org>,

Two clouds up from the highest heaven, seven.

Mack A. Damia

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Apr 22, 2018, 11:34:17 PM4/22/18

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWmvbxGpra4

Ross

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Apr 23, 2018, 12:06:36 AM4/23/18

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Green's citations, beginning in 1935 include Clouds Seven, Eight
and Ten with the same meaning. Earliest attestation of "9" is
in the 1959 pop song "Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb"; and
OED has one from Down Beat (jazz magazine) in the same year.
(His etymology mentions an improbable connection to a classification
of clouds by the US Weather Bureau. OED more plausibly connects it
with "in the clouds" (from 1651) "obscure, mystical; fanciful, unreal;
above the range of ordinary understanding (generally combining the notions
of obscurity and elevation)". There's a cross-ref. to "seventh heaven",
but oddly not to "head in the clouds" (1806-) meaning "to be detached from earthly matters; to be out of touch with reality; to be dreamy, impractical,
or unworldly". It was a trope just waiting for drug fiends to get their
hands on it.

Horace LaBadie

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Apr 23, 2018, 12:51:39 AM4/23/18

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In article <300b3845-ef18-4c87...@googlegroups.com>,

Aristophanes already had Nephelokokkygia (Cloud Cuckoo Land) c. 400
B.C.E.

Snidely

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Apr 23, 2018, 2:57:56 AM4/23/18

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Mack A. Damia scribbled something on Sunday the 4/22/2018:

Was that supposed to make me happy?

/dps

--
Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013

occam

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Apr 23, 2018, 3:02:25 AM4/23/18

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<smile> Can you get there with an elevator, or do you have to take the
stairs?

occam

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Apr 23, 2018, 3:11:46 AM4/23/18

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On 23/04/2018 08:57, Snidely wrote:
> Mack A. Damia scribbled something on Sunday the 4/22/2018:
>> On Mon, 23 Apr 2018 01:37:16 +0000 (UTC), Amethyst
>> <ameth...@koho.com> wrote:
>>
>>> A friend told me he was on "Cloud 9".
>>> I asked what that meant.
>>> He said it means he is happy.
>>> I asked why?
>>> He didn't know why.
>>> Do you?
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWmvbxGpra4
>
> Was that supposed to make me happy?
>

No, it is the usual non sequitur from the poster. He normally inhabits
cloud cuckoo land.

Janet

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Apr 23, 2018, 6:42:44 AM4/23/18

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You are Hen Harrison and ICMFP.

Janet

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Horace LaBadie

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Apr 23, 2018, 8:36:57 AM4/23/18

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In article <fk5enu...@mid.individual.net>,

Use the Lyft app.

HVS

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Apr 23, 2018, 10:06:18 AM4/23/18

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(poor taste filter off)

https://goo.gl/images/oNtdxc

(PTF back on)

Mack A. Damia

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Apr 23, 2018, 11:24:58 AM4/23/18

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On Sun, 22 Apr 2018 23:57:51 -0700, Snidely <snide...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Mack A. Damia scribbled something on Sunday the 4/22/2018:
>> On Mon, 23 Apr 2018 01:37:16 +0000 (UTC), Amethyst
>> <ameth...@koho.com> wrote:
>>
>>> A friend told me he was on "Cloud 9".
>>> I asked what that meant.
>>> He said it means he is happy.
>>> I asked why?
>>> He didn't know why.
>>> Do you?
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWmvbxGpra4
>
>Was that supposed to make me happy?

Inverted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRvLxnfODn0

Peter Duncanson [BrE]

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Apr 23, 2018, 12:27:52 PM4/23/18

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On Mon, 23 Apr 2018 15:06:15 +0100, HVS <use...@REMOVE-THISwhhvs.co.uk>
wrote:

<smile>

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

Lewis

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Apr 24, 2018, 9:55:03 AM4/24/18

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It's been around a while, but didn't really come into common use until
after The Temptations ninth album. (And before that other cloud numbers
were around, mostly cloud seven).

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_(The_Temptations_album)>

It is assumed, but the band members deny it, that "cloud nine" was a
drug reference.

--
Yeah, Nick. Nick's the kinda guy you can trust. Nick's your buddy Nick's
the kinda guy you drink beers with. The kinda guy that doesn't care if
you puke in his car. Nick.

Lewis

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Apr 24, 2018, 9:57:10 AM4/24/18

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In message <300b3845-ef18-4c87...@googlegroups.com> Ross <benl...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
> On Monday, April 23, 2018 at 3:09:46 PM UTC+12, Horace LaBadie wrote:
>> In article <pbjdcb$ln6$1...@gioia.aioe.org>,
>> Amethyst <ameth...@koho.com> wrote:
>>
>> > A friend told me he was on "Cloud 9".
>> > I asked what that meant.
>> > He said it means he is happy.
>> > I asked why?
>> > He didn't know why.
>> > Do you?
>>
>> Two clouds up from the highest heaven, seven.

> Green's citations, beginning in 1935 include Clouds Seven, Eight
> and Ten with the same meaning. Earliest attestation of "9" is
> in the 1959 pop song "Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb";

The Oxnard Press-Courier, August 1946:
"I think he has thought of everything, unless the authorities pull
something new on him out of cloud nine."

But I think the meaning is different there.

--
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

Ross

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Apr 24, 2018, 5:58:36 PM4/24/18

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Perhaps, but it's still in the neighbourhood.
May I ask how you found it?

Lewis

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Apr 25, 2018, 8:51:55 AM4/25/18

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Google, the fount of all knowledge.

--
I was good and deleted the "You *&;#$ing moron" before posting aren't
you proud of me?

Ross

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Apr 25, 2018, 9:14:36 AM4/25/18

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Exactly what were you searching? I google for words and phrases a lot, but
rarely find quotes from decades-old local newspapers.
Just googling "cloud nine" gets you 1.24 million things, mostly no use.
But maybe googling "cloud nine" "origin" would get you to something like
Phrase Finder https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-cloud-nine.html.
I don't know who PF is but it's got the Oxnard quote, and a lot of
other stuff. It credits some to slang dictionaries, but not all. I doubt
that PF has trawled the entire back files of the Press-Courier; maybe
it's in COHA. Anyway, enough meandering. I've sort of answered the question.
Thanks for your find.

Lewis

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Apr 25, 2018, 2:11:56 PM4/25/18

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Hmmm, let me see if I can find it.

<...looks...>

Nope, I do not have the search terms I used; I probably searched for
["Cloud nine" origin] or similar.

> I google for words and phrases a lot, but rarely find quotes from
> decades-old local newspapers. Just googling "cloud nine" gets you
> 1.24 million things, mostly no use. But maybe googling "cloud nine"
> "origin" would get you to something like Phrase Finder
> https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-cloud-nine.html.

That was the page I found, yes.

--
I mistook thee for thy better Hamlet Act III scene 4