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

Golightly, Holly
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17. Such was Goliath’s strength that the youthful
David was the only Israelite prepared to answer
his challenge to single combat. “Violent crime and
AIDS are probably each of them individually bigger
Goliaths than ever apartheid was” (Christianity
and Renewal, September 2001).
Golightly, Holly See holly golightly.
Gollum (golbm) A repulsive, slimy person or
creature. Gollum appears as a character in J. R.
R. Tolkien’s novels <strong>The</strong> Hobbit (1937) and <strong>The</strong> Lord
of the Rings (1954–55), in which he is depicted
as a degenerate but pitiable creature who has
been debased as a result of his long- term possession
of the precious ring that is the object of the
heroes’ quest. His name has also been purloined
to describe a wild throw in a game of frisbee. <strong>The</strong>
bar was usually peopled with a variety of gollums
and other assorted white trash that rarely saw daylight.
Gomez and Morticia See addams family.
Gomorrah See sodom and gomorrah.
Goneril See king lear.
gone with the wind Disappeared completely. <strong>The</strong>
phrase fi rst appeared in the poem “Num sum qualis
eram” (or “Cynara”) written in the 1890s by
the British poet Ernest Dowson (1867–1900): “I
have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the wind.”
<strong>The</strong> quotation is today best- known as the title of
the classic 1939 movie Gone With the Wind (based
on a 1936 novel of the same name by Margaret
Mitchell), which starred Vivien Leigh as Scarlett
O’Hara opposite Clark Gable as her lover Rhett
Butler. In modern usage, the phrase sometimes
alludes to the fi lm itself, suggesting that something
is romantically overblown: Her complaints
about her boyfriend were all very Gone With the Wind
as far as I was concerned. See also frankly, my dear,
i don’t give a damn; tomorrow is another
day.
Goodfellow, Robin See puck.
good fi ght, fi ght the See fi ght the good fi ght.
good for nothing See salt of the earth.
good life, the A life of self- sustainability and
environmental responsibility. <strong>The</strong> phrase is particularly
associated with a 1970s BBC tele vi sion
sitcom of the same title, in which Richard Briers
and Felicity Kendal played Tom and Barbara
Good, a couple determined to abandon their former
middle- class lifestyle and instead live a more
self- suffi cient existence, growing their own food
and doing without many of the unnecessary and
wasteful luxuries of the modern world. In nonallusive
use the phrase has a very different meaning,
referring to a life of luxury. More and more people
are opting out of the rat race in the hope of living the
good life as smallholders.
good neighbor policy Behaving well toward your
neighbors. <strong>The</strong> original Good Neighbor Policy was
that adopted by the U.S. government in the 1930s
with the aim of appeasing the fear of South American
states that the United States intended to
expand its infl uence over the whole of the American
continent, as made clear in the inaugural
address of President Franklin D. Roo se velt in
1933: “In the fi eld of world policy; I would dedicate
this nation to the policy of the good neighbor.”
<strong>The</strong> good neighbor policy observed by the two