"If it can happen, it will happen!"

September 22, 2003 3:10 PM

Why Everything You Know About Murphy’s Law is Wrong
It's about engineering built-in redundancy, the fastest man in the world, and the right to claim authorship. Plus: not a single dumb ethnic stereotype in sight! From the Annals of Improbable Research
posted by dash_slot- (10 comments total)

Part 4 -- [This will be posted on September 24] The Voice of Murphy

AUUUUUGH! AUUUUGH! dash you damned TEASE. AUUUUUGH!

Uh, I mean, this is good.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:43 PM on September 22, 2003

Murphy's Law: "His story"...minus a "s".
posted by thomcatspike at 3:54 PM on September 22, 2003

i like the ring of the 'original' phrase better than the one we know today:

"If it can happen, it will."

Neat.
posted by quin at 4:14 PM on September 22, 2003

[this is good]
posted by dg at 4:16 PM on September 22, 2003

Weird. This link is blocked at the proxy by work's somewhat erratic content filter. I wonder why.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:23 PM on September 22, 2003

Perhaps "riding the rocket sled" has other less wholesome meanings...

Really cool article. But... if you start off with "if something CAN go wrong", it would seem to follow that "it will". Otherwise, you would would have said "nothing can go wrong" in the first place.

And, of course, you'd be soooo wrong....
posted by groundhog at 5:58 PM on September 22, 2003

From the article:
In 1940 there were 25 million licensed drivers and 40,000 traffic deaths, and in they year 2000 there were 72 million drivers and 42,000 deaths. And I think that sums up his life.
Wow. I mean, WOW. The origin of Murphy's law is wicked cool. But, Dr. Stapp, well, he's my, and my whole family's, hero.
posted by dchase at 8:30 PM on September 22, 2003

The fourth page is up, just not linked.
posted by stopgap at 11:07 PM on September 22, 2003

Amen. Great article...
posted by micropublishery at 12:13 PM on September 23, 2003

Fantastic article. Stapp truly is a hero to the auto safety community. There is an annual conference named in his honor, and it will meet for the 47th time this October.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 12:50 PM on September 23, 2003