The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

children’s teeth set on edge
92
a pause in the day’s occupations, / That is known
as the Children’s Hour.” It was children’s hour in the
conference chamber, with delegates spouting much hot
air and very little sense.
children’s teeth set on edge How a person
behaves refl ects on the rest of his or her family or
associates. <strong>The</strong> image appears in Jeremiah 31:29–
30, in which this piece of proverbial wisdom is
refuted in favor of each person being responsible
for his or her own behavior: “In those days they
shall say no more, <strong>The</strong> fathers have eaten a sour
grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But
everyone shall die for his own iniquity.” It is also
included in Ezekiel 18:2–3. When, as a young man,
he was faced with having to answer for his progenitor’s
controversial policy, it was a case of the father having
eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth being set
on edge.
chimera (kimirb) An idle fancy; a fantastic, wild,
or implausible product of the imagination. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to a fi re- breathing monster of Greek
mythology, described as having the head of a lion,
the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. She
was killed by the arrows of Bellerophon, mounted
on the winged horse Pegasus. <strong>The</strong> creature’s name
may have been borrowed from that of a volcano
similarly named in Lycia; fl ames shot forth from
its summit, while lions prowled its upper slopes
and goats and snakes lurked lower down. <strong>The</strong>
name subsequently came to be used to describe
any fabulous creature comprising the body parts
of several different animals. By extension, anything
unlikely or fantastical may be described as
chimerical. “. . . her spontaneous appeal to that
sacred name dissolved his chimera; and let him see
with his eyes, and hear with his ears” (Charles
Reade, <strong>The</strong> Cloister and the Hearth, 1861).
China syndrome A theoretical scenario in which
a nuclear meltdown in the United States would
result in the radioactive material burning its way
through the earth’s core and reemerging in China,
on the other side of the world. This alarming possibility
was raised in a fi lm starring Jane Fonda and
Jack Lemmon, <strong>The</strong> China Syndrome, which was
released in 1979, the same year as the nuclear
accident at three mile island; it appeared to be
even closer to becoming a reality following the
chernobyl disaster in 1986. <strong>The</strong> phrase is sometimes
applied in nonnuclear contexts. This error by
the department could trigger a China syndrome that
burrows its way through the whole government
structure.
Chinese wall See great wall of china.
Chingachgook See last of the mohicans.
chinless wonder An ineffectual, typically dimwitted,
upper- class male. <strong>The</strong> expression, which
appears to date only from the 1960s, was probably
inspired by the “Boneless Wonder,” the name under
which circus contortionists were traditionally
billed. A receding chin has long been interpreted
as a sign of pusillanimous character, just as a jutting
jawline has been seen as a sign of physical and
mental strength. “She’d been waylaid within ten
feet of the front door, which didn’t surprise me,
by a chinless wonder in a baggy suit and powder
blue trainers (nobody wears trainers with a suit
any more)” (Mike Ripley, Just Another Angel,
1989).
chips with everything Summary of the traditionally
insular, culturally unambitious attitude of the
British working class. Best known as the title of a
1962 play by Arnold Wesker (b. 1932), the phrase