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

noisy sip at the cup that cheers” (M. Kilby, Man at
the Sharp End, 1991).
curate’s egg Something that is good in some
parts but bad in others. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to a cartoon
published in Punch magazine in November 1895,
in which a ner vous young curate sharing breakfast
with his bishop is asked about his egg: “ ‘I’m afraid
you’ve got a bad egg, Mr. Jones.’ ‘Oh no, my Lord,
I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!’ ” <strong>The</strong> offi cial
report into the civil administration was a curate’s egg,
some departments coming out well, but others being
revealed to have major defi ciencies.
curse God and die See job’s wife.
curse of Cain See mark of cain.
curse the day I was born An expression of despair
at the situation one fi nds oneself in. <strong>The</strong> expression
comes from Job 3:1–11, in which Job laments the
pain he suffers from the boils with which he is
affl icted: “After this opened Job his mouth, and
cursed his day . . . Let the day perish wherein I
was born, and the night in which it was said, <strong>The</strong>re
is a man child conceived . . . Why died I not from
the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I
came out of the belly?” At this latest blow the general
loudly cursed the day he was born and retired to his room,
where he remained for the next three days, sulking.
Custer’s Last Stand (kustbz) A heroic but futile
last stand made against overwhelming odds. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to the Battle of Little Bighorn in
Montana on June 25, 1876, during which the celebrated
General George Armstrong Custer
(1839–76) and his 200 men of the Seventh Cavalry
were annihilated by a strong force of Cheyenne
and Sioux Indians under the leadership of
cut the Gordian knot
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Subsequent analysis
of the encounter has suggested that the defeat
resulted largely from confusion and recklessness
among the army’s offi cers; despite this the clash is
cherished in the national imagination as a generally
heroic affair. He was tempted to stage a Custer’s
Last Stand against the demands of the rest of the family,
but eventually wisely decided to back down.
customer is always right, the It is good policy to
agree with the customer, or do what he or she
wants, if only in order to retain his or her future
custom. This familiar commercial slogan was
devised originally in 1909 by U.S.- born H. Gordon
Selfridge (1858–1947) for his famous London
department store Selfridge’s, the staff of which
were sternly forbidden to argue with customers,
whoever was really in the right. It has since been
adopted as a principle if not a slogan by many
other commercial ventures. “In education no
single customer is always right, people aren’t all
looking for the same things” (Mike Sullivan, Marketing
your Primary School, 1991).
cuts, death by a thousand See death by a thousand
cuts.
cut the Gordian knot (gordeebn) To take a direct
route in solving a complex problem. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the story of the intricate knot with which
Gordius, a peasant who became king of Phrygia,
attached his wagon to the yoke. It was said that any
person who could untie the knot would become
ruler of all Asia. When Alexander the Great was
presented with the challenge of unloosing the knot
he simply cut through it with his sword. “When he
became prime minister last April, Koizumi was
supposed to be the clean- up kid who would cut
through Japan’s Gordian knot of bureaucratic
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