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So, we came into the office this morning, turned on the computer, took a sip of coffee, discovered it was too hot, spit it out all over the keyboard, watched the computer melt down, and, well, that's all she wrote. When we think of a person saying "that's all she wrote," we usually picture someone who's disappointed for some reason. Maybe her computer died, maybe his girlfriend left, maybe she was just informed the tax laws have changed and she can no longer claim pets as dependents. In short, the good old days are gone and aren't likely to return. The Word Detective believes the phrase may have originated during
World War II. Soldiers who received "Dear John" letters from their wives and girlfriends announcing "a blunt end to the relationship" probably used the saying as a kind of punch line to emphasize the coldness with which they'd been dumped. Ricky Nelson, Conway Twitty, and Reba McEntire have worked the famous phrase into songs about heartbreak. In fact, some believe the phrase really came from ditties about brides left at the altar. However, if that were true, wouldn't it be "that's
all he wrote" instead?
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