Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Murphy and Miranda

Heymatt:

What's the story behind Miranda in our Miranda Rights? Where they named after a real woman? If so, was she a quiet woman? And who is the Murphy of Murphy's Law? Did anything ever go right for him?

Sponsored
Sponsored

-- JBP, the net

Compared to Miranda, Murphy was a luck magnet. And Miranda wasn't very silent, which is why everything hit the fan in the first place. So here's "Eponymous Phrases for Dummies," by Matthew Alice.

Ernesto Miranda was arrested in 1963 in Arizona for robbery. While in custody, he confessed to a recent kidnapping and rape. The prosecution had no trouble persuading the jury to convict him. Defense lawyers appealed, saying Miranda had not been advised that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution gave him the right to refuse to incriminate himself by confessing. In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed (Miranda v. Arizona). Miranda was retried in Arizona, using other evidence, and again found guilty; but his name has stuck to the disclaimer now read to all arrestees. P.S.: After his parole, the unfortunate defendant was killed in a bar fight. If something could go wrong for Mr. Miranda, it seems it often did.

Edward A. Murphy, on the other hand, was one of several engineers doing research for the Air Force at Edwards AFB in the mid-1940s. The experiment in question involved measuring the reaction of the human body to certain extreme forces. Only when the test was complete did they realize someone had wired some meters backwards and they had no data. One of the engineers took an already well-known adage (if something can be done two ways, one of which will be disastrous, then someone will do it that way) and assigned it the name "Murphy's Law" after his colleague. It gained popularity in military and engineering circles, then in the general population many years later. And here's Matthew's Law: If you discover there's more than one story about who Murphy was, and you think my choice sucks, then you go get your own column and you deal with these word-origin guys, who never seem to agree about anything.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Big Swell Rolls in for Christmas – Rockfish Closure

Big wahoo down south

Heymatt:

What's the story behind Miranda in our Miranda Rights? Where they named after a real woman? If so, was she a quiet woman? And who is the Murphy of Murphy's Law? Did anything ever go right for him?

Sponsored
Sponsored

-- JBP, the net

Compared to Miranda, Murphy was a luck magnet. And Miranda wasn't very silent, which is why everything hit the fan in the first place. So here's "Eponymous Phrases for Dummies," by Matthew Alice.

Ernesto Miranda was arrested in 1963 in Arizona for robbery. While in custody, he confessed to a recent kidnapping and rape. The prosecution had no trouble persuading the jury to convict him. Defense lawyers appealed, saying Miranda had not been advised that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution gave him the right to refuse to incriminate himself by confessing. In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed (Miranda v. Arizona). Miranda was retried in Arizona, using other evidence, and again found guilty; but his name has stuck to the disclaimer now read to all arrestees. P.S.: After his parole, the unfortunate defendant was killed in a bar fight. If something could go wrong for Mr. Miranda, it seems it often did.

Edward A. Murphy, on the other hand, was one of several engineers doing research for the Air Force at Edwards AFB in the mid-1940s. The experiment in question involved measuring the reaction of the human body to certain extreme forces. Only when the test was complete did they realize someone had wired some meters backwards and they had no data. One of the engineers took an already well-known adage (if something can be done two ways, one of which will be disastrous, then someone will do it that way) and assigned it the name "Murphy's Law" after his colleague. It gained popularity in military and engineering circles, then in the general population many years later. And here's Matthew's Law: If you discover there's more than one story about who Murphy was, and you think my choice sucks, then you go get your own column and you deal with these word-origin guys, who never seem to agree about anything.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego’s Poet Laureate puts down his pen

Rhyme Time’s Up
Next Article

THEIR Lady of Guadalupe?

Racist attack in North Park after dark
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader