Subject: TANSTAAFL
To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu (DJ's GPP mailing list)
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 93 11:12:51 EST
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT ecolan DOT sbs DOT ohio-state DOT edu>

I started it, let's see if I can clear it up---
    As several posters have pointed out, TANSTAAFL is an acronym for
"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."  I first saw it in
Heinlein's *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* (1966).  H. Beam Piper also
used it in his *Fuzzy* novels, but I couldn't find the cite.  I think
they were later.  Although Heinlein is a stickler for accuracy in
language, in this particular novel the characters were using a creole
(mixture of several languages, dominated, in this case, by English),
so almost anything would go.  I don't know that he made it up;
Heinlein is responsible for a number of additions to the language
("waldo" comes to mind).  "Tanstaafl" could be his, too.
    It's a fairly common usage on alt.politics.libertarian and
alt.politics.anarchy (surprise :-)
    I think it's also in the unofficial official guide to Usenet
abbreviations.  :-)  (Don't ask me where to find that, I ran across it
in an archive somewhere.)
    My affiliation should be no surprise:
 
Stephen Turnbull
The Ohio State University, Department of Economics
410 Arps Hall, 1945 N. High St., Columbus, OH  43210-1172  USA
Phone: (614) 292-0654  Fax: ...-3906  Email: turnbull DOT 1 AT osu DOT edu