Yesterday, All those backups seemed a waste of pay. Now my database has gone away. Oh I believe in yesterday. Suddenly, There’s not half the files there used to be, and there’s a millstone hanging over me. The system crashed so suddenly. I pushed something wrong; What it was I could not say. Now all my data’s gone And I long for yesterday‒ay-ay-ay. Yesterday, The need for backups seemed so far away. When my data was all here to stay. Now I believe in yesterday.
The oldest reference I could find online is from Saturday, January 3, 1998 (page 6). It gives credit to the “Minnesota Newspaper Association Bulletin”. Let me know if you know more about the origin. More recent variants use “milestone” or “deadline” instead of “millstone”.
