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Vince Lombardi may have been overstating things a bit when he said "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." After all, not everyone wins, but life inevitably goes on. "Close, but no cigar" is a cliché, but it helps comfort those of us who don't always emerge victorious. Anyone who's ever lost at a card game or been aced out of a primo parking spot knows losing isn't fun. This is true now, and it was true when the phrase first came to prominence. According to Bartleby, the phrase likely originated at carnivals when cigars were given away as prizes. We can imagine fiendish carnival workers using the feel-good phrase as a way to get suckers like us with poor aim to try
our luck again. The Phrase Finder offers a slightly different story. The site states that the saying came from the custom of early slot machines awarding cigars to winners. A third theory comes from Take Our Word for It, which says nobody knows exactly how the phrase came about, but that it likely came to prominence at carnivals, specifically the game where players use a sledgehammer to ring a bell. Macho victors were given cigars, while the wimps were told they came close, but they would not be receiving any carcinogenic tobacco for their efforts.
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