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

untouchable
484
untouchable A law enforcer or other government
agent who is immune to being bribed. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to a famously incorruptible group of detectives
called the Untouchables that was led by Eliot Ness
(1903–57) of the U.S. Department of Justice
against the notorious al capone gang in Chicago
during the 1920s. <strong>The</strong>ir adventures, detailed by
Ness himself in a book entitled <strong>The</strong> Untouchables
(1947), later inspired a pop u lar tele vi sion series
and a movie (1987), both with the same title. A team
of untouchables has been put together to fi nd out how far
the corruption in the department has really gone.
upstairs, downstairs <strong>The</strong> contrast between the
upper and lower classes. <strong>The</strong> phrase alludes to
the fact that in the great houses of former times
the kitchens and other rooms that were the province
of the servants were usually located on the
lower fl oors, while the own ers of the buildings
conducted their lives in the fl oors above. <strong>The</strong>
phrase became doubly familiar as the title of a popu
lar BBC tele vi sion series, broadcast around the
world in the 1970s, about life in a large London
home in the early de cades of the 20th century. He
specializes in stories about upstairs, downstairs in modern
Manhattan. See also hudson.
Urania See muses.
Uranus (yoorbnbs, yooraynas) A planet in the
solar system, seventh in distance from the Sun. In
Greek mythology Uranus was a personifi cation of
the sky, a god who ruled the universe and who by
his own mother, Gaea (the Earth), fathered the
Titans and Cyclopes. He was subsequently overthrown
by his son Cronus, who thus separated
heaven from earth. <strong>The</strong> old lady warned him that his
life would never be easy because of the baleful infl uence
of Uranus in his birth chart.
Uriah See letter of uriah.
Uriah Heep (yoorib) An obsequious, untrustworthy
hypocrite. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the clerk of
the name in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfi
e l d (1849–1850) who deceitfully pretends to be
the “ ’umble servant” of the lawyer Mr. Wickfi eld
while stealing money from his business. <strong>The</strong> loathsome
Heep’s deceit is fi nally revealed and his plot
to force Wickfi eld into letting him marry his
daughter comes to nothing. He was horrifi ed to fi nd
that his assistant was a Uriah Heep who had brought the
family business to the brink of ruin.
U.S. cavalry A force that arrives in the nick of
time to save the situation. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the
many Western movies made over the de cades in
which a troop of the U.S. 7th Cavalry arrives just
in time to save beleaguered heroes from attack by
hostile Native Americans. <strong>The</strong> arrival of help just
in time is likely to be hailed with a thankful “here
come the cavalry” delivered in more or less reverent
tones according to the severity of the situation.
“One must resist seeing Bakhtin as the U.S.
Cavalry, riding in to rescue a threatened humanism
from howling poststructuralists” (Bernard Bergonzi,
Exploding En glish, 1990).
use a little wine See take a little wine.
Usher, House of See house of usher.
usual suspects See round up the usual
suspects.
utopia (yootopeeb) An ideal society or a perfect
place or paradise. <strong>The</strong> word comes ultimately from
the Greek for “no place,” but owes its modern
familiarity largely to the fact that the En glish