[Unfortunatley, for enjoyment's sake, after thinking about the following story long enough, I came to the conclusion that it might actually be true, because Gurunet says that the term was first used in the mid-1900s. But, without further ado, here is today's Capricious "Piffle":]

This term clearly originated in one of Walt Disney's most enduring films: Pinocchio. Pinocchio, the creative masterpiece of Geppetto, is a wooden marionette, and as is true with all such puppets, he has strings attached to his body. Pinocchio is forced to hop around in front of a rowdy audience. He has no control over his movements because he is controlled by the person pulling on the strings. Eventually, Pinocchio sheds his strings and becomes a real boy. He has "no strings attached" and thus, there are no limitations to what he can do.

And now you know. . .the rest of the story.