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

cock and bull story An unbelievable story. Various
suggestions have been made as to the origins
of this phrase. It may allude to the various medieval
fables in which cocks and bulls commonly
feature, or it may be a reference to the fact that
many En glish pubs, where tall stories abounded,
were called the Cock or the Bull. Perhaps signifi -
cantly, in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, travelers
by coach formerly swapped stories with each
other as they exchanged coaches between the Cock
and Bull inns. “Nobody believes this cock and bull
story about the sacking incident” (M. Kilby, Man at
the Sharp End, 1991).
cockatrice (kokbtris) A monster who can kill
with a single glance; by extension, a dangerous,
treacherous person. <strong>The</strong> cockatrice was a legendary
serpent hatched by a serpent from a cock’s egg. It
could kill any enemy with a single glance or with its
breath. <strong>The</strong> creature appears in Isaiah 11:8, 14:29,
and 59:5 and also in Jeremiah 8:17. “This will so
fright them both that they will kill one another by
the look, like cockatrices” (William Shakespeare,
Twelfth Night, 1601). See also basilisk stare.
Cockpit of Eu rope Belgium and the surrounding
region of northwest Eu rope. This nickname
alludes to the area’s long history as the scene of
armed confl ict between the major nations of
western Eu rope, from medieval times to World
War II. Important battles fought in the region
have included waterloo (1815) and the somme
(1916). <strong>The</strong> shape of the modern world was decided in
the Cockpit of Eu rope. See also fl anders.
cogito ergo sum See cartesian.
Cold Comfort Farm An untidy, comfortless
place, especially one in a rural setting. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to a comic novel of the same title by the British
novelist Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. <strong>The</strong>
plot, which parodied the genre of rustic novels
then fashionable, revolves around the arrival of a
lively young woman in the bleak surroundings of
Cold Comfort Farm, home to the eccentric
Starkadder clan. “<strong>The</strong> decor expresses an uneasy
marriage between Cold Comfort Farm, the house
behind the garage in <strong>The</strong> Big Sleep, and the Holein-
the- Wall gang’s hideaway on the morning after
the shoot- out” (Ellen Galford, <strong>The</strong> Dyke and the
Dybbuk, 1993). See also something nasty in the
woodshed.
Colditz (koldits) A forbidding, prison- like building.
Colditz Castle, not far from the German city
of Leipzig, became notorious as a high- security
prison for captured Allied offi cers during World
War II. <strong>The</strong> many ingenious escape attempts
(some successful) devised by the inmates inspired
books and the pop u lar tele vi sion series Colditz
(1972–74). “This Colditz estate is to be pulled
down” (Beatrix Campbell, Wigan Pier Revisited,
1985).
cold war A state of mutual hostility between two
parties, short of actual confrontation. <strong>The</strong> original
cold war broke out between the Soviet Union
(together with its communist satellite states) and
the United States (together with the rest of the
free, capitalist West) at the end of World War II and
lasted until the collapse of the Soviet regime in the
late 1980s. Contact between the two blocs was
restricted, and both sides sought to undermine
their opponents through propaganda, spying, and
economic pressure. <strong>The</strong> term is thought to have
been coined in 1947, suggested by former newspaper
editor Herbert Bayard Swope for a speech
delivered by U.S. politician and economist Bernard
cold war
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