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

Last Trump
276
Mr. Hague came to the grim realisation that it was
all over. . . . Only two friends, who shared their
‘last supper,’ had been informed in advance”
(Times, June 9, 2001).
Last Trump <strong>The</strong> end of the world; judgment
day. <strong>The</strong> signal for the end of the world will be a
blast on Gabriel’s trumpet, when the dead will
rise for judgment: “We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians
15:51–52). “ ‘How like a fi rst night at the Opera!’
he thought, recognising all the same faces in the
same boxes (no, pews), and wondering if, when
the Last Trump sounded, Mrs. Selfridge Merry
would be there with the same towering ostrich
feathers in her bonnet, and Mrs. Beaufort with
the same diamond earrings and the same smile”
(Edith Wharton, <strong>The</strong> Age of Innocence, 1920).
Las Vegas (vaygbs) A place offering brash entertainment,
especially gambling. Las Vegas in the
Mojave Desert of Nevada was a fairly insignifi cant
Mormon town until the legalization of gambling
throughout Nevada in 1931 and, with the opening
of the Flamingo in 1946, the arrival of the fi rst
luxury casino. It subsequently developed into the
biggest city in the state, with huge hotels, neon- lit
casinos, nightclubs and other attractions. In the
pro cess its name has also become a byword for
glitzy vulgarity. Las Vegas means “the meadows” in
Spanish. <strong>The</strong> town has ambitions to become the Las
Vegas of the south coast.
Laurel and Hardy (lorbl) An incompetent duo.
British comedian Stan Laurel (1891–1965) and
U.S. comedian Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) were
among the most pop u lar comedy stars of the early
silent cinema, appearing in numerous short and
full- length movies in the 1920s and 1930s. <strong>The</strong>ir
brand of slapstick humor continues to delight
audiences several de cades after their deaths, and
such catchphrases as this is another fi ne mess
you’ve got me into remain well known. “Our
suave heroes were transformed into Laurel and
Hardy: suburban life speeded up into some manic,
coronary inducing rush hour” Ian Breakwell and
Paul Hammond, (eds., Seeing in the Dark, 1990).
See also abbott and costello.
laurels (lorblz) Honor; distinction; fame. <strong>The</strong>
ancient Greeks crowned the champion at the
Pythian Games with a wreath of laurels, the evergreen
laurel having long held sacred status. Subsequently
many athletic champions as well as
prominent poets and military leaders of the ancient
world were honored with laurel crowns, and since
medieval times winners of certain accolades and
high offi ces have been termed laureates. By extension
to rest on one’s laurels means to rely on past
successes rather than trying to achieve new ones
and to look to one’s laurels means to need to
make a new effort to maintain one’s lead over others.
“ ‘I never heard your Grace / So much in the
vein for preaching; let the Cardinal / Look to his
laurels, sir’ ” (Oscar Wilde, <strong>The</strong> Duchess of Padua,
1891).
law is an ass, the <strong>The</strong> law is not always based on
what is sensible or realistic. This is usually identifi
ed as a quotation from the novel oliver twist
(1837–38) by the British novelist Charles Dickens
(1812–70), specifi cally the reaction of Mr. Bumble
to the news that the law presumes his wife to act
under his direction: “If the law supposes that . . .
the law is a ass–a idiot.” <strong>The</strong> phrase is actually
much older, appearing in other works as early as
the 17th century. Having lost his driver’s license for