European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes monday March 30,1987 column Bravo Zulu to the j6wer report today s crossword by William Safire Chain that Young Man to a computer said John Tower and feed him baloney sandwiches thus did the chairman of tic Reagan appointed Board to investigate i ran Contra arms dealings assign the task of writ ing appendix a to Nicholas Rostow a staff member borrowed  state department who had Aca Demic training in diplomatic history. The result was the most stunning reverse appendectomy in government report writing in years. A reverse appendectomy puts an inflamed appendix in Roslow riveting narrative piecing together the sometimes contradictory evidence in a dramatic fashion was not the portion of the report printed in most newspapers but is the guts of the paperback Book the Tower commis Sion report that became an overnight Best Teller. Lexicographer and linguists found that Section to be of special interest because its selections from Interoffice computer memo revealed in raw form the arcane Lingo of the military bureaucrats on the National Security Council lust. We have at last available for scholarly anal Ysis the Down Home patois of our Home grown patsies " two Zulu on Jenco s release wrote former National Security adviser Robert a Mcfarian to vice adm. John a Poindexter after an arms shipment obtained the release of an american held hostage in Lebanon. Colonel Mcfarian used that same express Ion Bravo Zulu at the end of a message lot col. Oliver a North a fellow naval Academy  reporters immediately suspected South african involvement in the dealings in Navy signal code Bravo stands for b and Zulu for z. Merriam Webster dates the use of these terms fro the North Atlantic treaty organization phonetic alphabet Back to circa 1962 and 1952, respectively when the two signals Are put together Asb a or spoken or written out As Bravo Zulu the message Means Job Well  Why Why do the letters by not mean to , try another ship nobody 1 reached at the naval Academy or the naval Institute at Annapolis had the answer though commendably nobody there refused to answer on constitutional grounds. Some what defensively one old Salt librarian suggested the Lexers by were used by signal communicators to mean Well done for the same reason cd operators use 10-4 for great or so Long that is for no reason at  verb phrases also studded the appendix. I was advised to do nothing and basically to  testified Howard Teicher then the National Security Council s Middle Eastern specialist. Thai same expression using the past participle of stand was repeated to me in this connection by Secretary of state George p. Shulte they told me the whole thing was stood Dot the earliest use of stand Down dates Back to 1681, As a clause in a trial transcript directing a witness to leave the Box after giving evidence you say Well stand  in the 19th Century the infinitive phrase Rostand Down gained a nautical sense of to sail with the wind or  in the 1890s, it became a sports Ter meaning to withdraw from a race or game. In world War i it became the opposite of the order stand loan Ellipsis for stand to one s arms or come on duty. Stand Down is the order counter manding stand to wrote Edward Samuel Farrow in his 1918 dictionary of military terms. This sense of coming off military duty was transferred to closing Down an operation by military men working in the diplomatic area during the past decade if pressed for action you can credibly Promise paper within the next few Days wrote the late Donald a Fortier Deputy to Mcfarian this it the first appear Ance anywhere of this locution. Closest is the 1976 com ment in the economist of London that the tory government facing defeat had to prom ise a White paper on the subject to quell the  in the sense used inthe Csc memo paper is a memorandum or other documentation to Back up a position the infinitive phrased Promise paper i assume from the context Means to Promise a report in writing to a senior who i worried about All these words flying around on the  informed of the Central intelligence Agency s involvement in an Early shipment of arms to Iran then Deputy director John a Mcmahon wrote a self protecting memo for Bis file saying that he Wen through the overhead pointing out that there was no Way we could become involved. Without a finding overhead in this context seems to be an intensified term for roof the overhead has Long meant sky firmament and someone who goes through it is far an Grier than the fiddler who stops after penetrating thereof. This sense May be influenced by comp Terese which defines a High overhead function As one that places heavy demands on a computer using overhead in an extended sense of Cost of doing  observe the double meaning in Larry Tisch has gone through the overhead now to be jeers up. Was president Reagan informed then the White House chief of staff told the Tower com Mission but try no Means was it really teed up for him of what the Downside risk would be Here As far As american Public opinion was  the infinitive phrase to tee up is from Golf More recently from football to place a Ball on a Lee a device Tor setting it in place above the ground to be hit or  in the passive voice used by Regan the phrase Means be Speed out As if to a child or some one unfamiliar with the language be explained so that understanding is  is not to be confused with to tee off which in Golf Means to begin and by Extension to hit therall or problem a Long Way on the tint  however the passive to be teed off does not mean to have begun but to be very  if you Are asked to use both phrases in a single sentence try when president Reagan discovered the risk had not been properly teed up he was feed off the nervous investor Reading Donald Regan s teed up sentence will be attracted by the former Merrill Lynch chairman s use of Downside risk. This is a erase probably first used in the Walt Street journal opt. 10, 1953, according to sol Steinmetz of Barnhart books. The paper warned there is a Downside risk uncommon locks at this  Downside first spotted in 1946, is based on the flip Side of upside which appeared in the 14th Century s upside Down. 1 foun 23 make dress 25 captured across 39 do k i 1 to an and 41 Roll mining Tower Munin i ii follows 43 residue 2 one Type 26 French Tow or 44 unique of verb natural T7culd Adriatic wind 53 janitor Sii item Auto need 13 grampus so river14 nine Dye l Nib icelandic mitc he tory 27 food46 pattern 3 Security Riah so scorch 4 Antelope 28strlke of Tibet breaker5 Barren 29 dance 6 clean with Ihor me Oug Tuy France 6 eject 7 labor Day 30  St hot time signal 31 Toper _ of mail in Paris 8 Yoko 3g money17 contend Abbeye of clonal a " deny part steeper account59 Rachel 10 pub drink Jug sea. Sister 12 to and fro eagle60 old 19 blow one s 40 doctrine horse 49 country61 asian 21-Owk Holiday Hepburn movie solution Telmet 23 mans. "with18 put in office20 dim Twilight -22 Tyson s triumphs abbr. 24 Millerand dnvls28 removes ".plamie32 Noll s portlier33 masked animal for Short 34 court 3b jailbird 37 ammonia come found saturday s answer 3-3 Buh alb ijuflh1hhh she by Ulsky reds a 48 composer Nino 47 eating plan48 serf 49 for fear that to Bogota station abbr.51 color so Neth Crl Hanse counter 30 the far Side Chameleon Laux Pac arriving of a poly in life same color at the Host