Pie’ (1971), written and performed by Don McLean. This was a tribute to Buddy Holly and full of allusions to 1960s’ America. It has been claimed that ‘American Pie’ was the name of the aircraft in which Holly was flying when he died but this has been specifically denied by Don McLean. Presumably, if any particular pie was being evoked it was apple pie. See also under JACOB’S JOIN.
amid the glare of television lights See UNDER THE GLARE.
am I not a man and a brother? Accompanying a picture of a kneeling Negro slave in chains, this slogan appeared on a pottery cameo made by Josiah Wedgwood in about 1790. Subsequently, it was frequently reproduced during the fight against slavery and adopted by the Anti-Slavery Society. It also appears in Chap. 6 of Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies (1863).
am I right, or am I right? An expression brooking no debate. From American show biz, one suspects. In P. G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton, Bring On the Girls, Chap. 9 (1954) there is: ‘“It’s no good for a revue, Flo [Ziegfeld]. It needs a situation back of it. It needs a guy named Bill and the girl who loves him.” He turned to Plum [Wodehouse]. “Am I right or am I right?”’ It is also in the script of the films Gypsy (US 1962) and Shampoo (US 1975). Compare: ‘Am I wet, or am I wet?’ from Henry Reed, A Very Great Man Indeed (1953) and what Mae West asks in I’m No Angel (1933): ‘Is that elegant, or is that elegant?’ It builds of course on the more usual expression ‘am I wrong or am I right?’ The format endures: ‘Is that funny or is that funny?’ – from the BBC radio show Round the Horne (10 April 1966); ‘[Of a dog] is he great or is he great?’ – Thames TV, Rock Follies (2 March 1976); ‘Is that a great theme or is that a great theme?’ – same show (9 March 1976).
amor vincit omnia [love conquers all] One of the best-known proverbial expressions of all. It is from Virgil’s Eclogues, No. 10, line 69. Chaucer’s Prioress had it on her brooch, as mentioned in ‘The General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales.
(—don’t) amount to a hill of beans Meaning, ‘—don’t amount to anything.’ One of the most remembered lines from the film Casablanca (US 1942) is the one in which Rick (Humphrey Bogart) says: ‘Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’ An earlier use of the ‘hill of beans’ phrase – ‘Ancestors are a poor excuse for not amounting to a hill of beans’ – is quoted in Wolfgang Mieder, Talk Less and Say More: Vermont Proverbs (1986) and OED2 has an 1863 (US) citation of this same version. A parallel expression has ‘row of beans’. From P. G. Wodehouse, Psmith Journalist, Chap. 9 (1915): ‘Look at Everybody’s Magazine. They didn’t amount to a row of beans till Lawson started his “Frenzied Finance” articles.’
Amplex See EVEN YOUR BEST.
amusing, awful and artificial This is reputedly King James II’s description of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, using three words whose meanings have since changed. He meant that it was ‘pleasing, awe-inspiring, and skilfully achieved.’ The earliest citation found is in Simeon Potter’s Our Language (1976). But in William Kent’s An Encyclopedia of London (1937), it is rather Charles II who in 1675 approved a new design for St Paul’s because it was ‘very artificial, proper and useful.’ As all monarchs from King James I to Queen Anne seem to have had the remark ascribed to them, perhaps a true source for this phrase will never be found.
(the) anatomy of—A title format, of which the first notable use is The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton. That book used the word ‘anatomy’ in an appropriate manner, its subject being a medical condition (anatome is the Greek word for dissection). The modern vogue for ‘anatomies’ of this and that began with the film Anatomy of a Murder (US 1959) and was followed by Anthony Sampson’s book Anatomy of Britain, first published in 1962 and revised a number of times since.
ancestral vices/voices Ancestral Vices is the title of a novel (1980) by Tom Sharpe; Ancestral Voices is the title of the first volume of diaries (1975) by the architectural historian James Lees-Milne (1908–97). Both allude to the poem ‘Kubla Khan’ (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which contains the lines: ‘…Five miles meandering with a mazy motion / Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, / Then reach’d the caverns measureless to man, / And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: / And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far / Ancestral voices prophesying war! / The shadow of the dome of pleasure / Floated midway on the waves; / Where was heard the mingled measure / From the fountain and the caves. / It was a miracle of rare device, / A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!’ The poem as a whole has been ransacked for all subsequent titles of Lees-Milne’s published diaries: Prophesying Peace (1977), Caves of Ice (1983), Midway on the Waves (1985), A Mingled Measure (1994), Ancient As the Hills (1997), Through Wood and Dale (1998), Deep Romantic Chasm (2000), Holy Dread (2001), Beneath a Waning Moon (2003). Compare STATELY PLEASURE DOME.
and all because the lady loves Milk Tray Cadbury’s Milk Tray chocolates have been promoted with this line since 1968. On British TV, the line was the pay-off to action adverts showing feats of James Bond-style daring that climaxed with the presentation of a box of the chocolates to a suitably alluring female.
—and all that ‘And all that sort of thing.’ Apparently the phrase was in the language before Sellar and Yeatman used it in the title of their cod volume of English history, 1066 And All That (1930). See also GOODBYE TO ALL THAT.
and all that jazz ‘And all that stuff, the rest, etcetera’ – often with the dismissive suggestion ‘and all that nonsense, rubbish’. American in origin, popular since 1959. From Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge, Chap. 6 (1968): ‘He [was] so pleased to have me “on the team” and me so happy to be able to do work in Hollywood, California, a life’s dream come true and – as they used to say in the early Sixties – all that jazz.’ All That Jazz was the title of a film (US 1979) about the life and death of a choreographer.
and a special goodnight to you Before becoming a disc jockey on British radio, David Hamilton (b. 1939) was an announcer with a number of independent television companies, including Tyne Tees, ABC and Thames. In the days when TV schedules ended round about midnight, his romantic sign-off became so distinctive that he even made a record with the title – ‘A Special Goodnight to You’ (circa 1967). At about the same time, the sign-off was also used by Barry Aldiss (‘B. A.’) on Radio Luxembourg and subsequently by several other broadcasters.
and awa-a-aay we go! On the Jackie Gleason Show on US television (1952–70), the rotund comic hosted variety acts and would always use this phrase to lead into the first sketch. He had a special pose to accompany it – head turned to face left, one leg raised ready to shoot off in the same direction. Gleason’s other stock (perhaps catch) phrases were how sweet it is!; baby, you’re the greatest!; one of these days…one of these days…; and pow! right in the kisser! He also popularized the word ‘labonza’ for posterior, as in ‘a kick in the labonza’. In The Life of Riley (1949–50), Gleason’s phrase after some stroke of fate was what a revoltin’ development this is!, though this appears to have been taken over by William Bendix, who followed him in the part.
and Death shall have no dominion The title of the notable poem (1936) on immortality by Dylan Thomas is a straightforward allusion to Romans 6:9: ‘Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.’
and
