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

emembered as one of the most decisive dates in
world history. In fact, D-day was initially set for
June 5, but had to be postponed for 24 hours due
to adverse weather conditions. <strong>The</strong> D in D-day
was an abbreviation of “Day.” Next Monday is D-Day
for Wall Street. See also longest day.
dead . . . and never called me mother! An expression
of mock dismay, as typifi ed by melodramatic
19th- century drama and fi ction. Though associated
particularly with the hugely pop u lar sentimental
novel east lynne (1861) by Mrs. Henry
Wood, the line does not actually appear in the
original book, but was added in a successful 1874
stage adaptation of the novel. <strong>The</strong> line occurs in a
scene during which a mother grieves over her
young son, who has died unaware of his mother’s
true identity. It was one of those “dead . . . and never
called me mother!” per for mances that would never convince
any modern audience.
dead bury their dead, let the See let the dead
bury the dead.
dead- end kids Youths who seem doomed to a
disappointing future by virtue of their unpromising,
impoverished backgrounds. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to
a group of U.S. child actors called the Dead End
Kids, who appeared in the role of street hooligans
in a series of fi lms during the 1930s, among them
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). He was a dead- end kid
in his youth but grew up to become one of the most infl uential
men in the city.
dead lion See living dog is better than a
dead lion, a.
dead man’s hand A stroke of bad luck, or an
unlucky omen. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the hand of cards
Dead Sea fruit
that Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok was holding when
he was shot in the back in a Deadwood saloon on
August 2, 1876 (supposedly black aces and black
eights or, according to another tradition, two jacks
and two eights). Ever since then a similar combination
of cards has been called a “dead man’s hand.”
He froze when he saw that he had been dealt the fabled
dead man’s hand.
dead man walking A person who is considered as
good as dead. <strong>The</strong> phrase, which became more
widely known through the 1995 fi lm Dead Man
Walking, was traditionally called out by prison
guards escorting condemned prisoners from death
row to the execution chamber in U.S. prisons. In
modern usage, the phrase is sometimes applied to
offi cials who are considered to be clinging to offi ce
long after their resignation or dismissal has become
inevitable. Since that defeat the leader of the party has
been a dead man walking.
dead parrot Something that is totally defunct.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the celebrated “dead parrot
sketch” fi rst performed on British tele vi sion in the
1970s by the monty python comedy team, in
which a disgruntled customer attempts to return a
dead parrot to a pet store only to be met with the
store own er’s blank refusal to admit that the bird
is actually dead. This policy is a dead parrot as far as
the rest of the government is concerned. See also sick as
a parrot.
Dead Sea fruit A bitter disappointment or disillusion.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is biblical in origin, referring
to the fruit trees grown on the shores of the Dead
Sea by the morally degenerate Sodomites. <strong>The</strong>
fruit of these trees was said to be beautiful to look
at but bitter to the taste and “within full of ashes,”
in the words of the French traveler Jean de
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