come from? Mencken (1942) gives ‘Man’s life is like a candle in the wind’ as a ‘Chinese proverb’. A French dictionary of proverbs lists ‘La vie de l’homme est comme une chandelle dans le vent’ as Chinese. A Dutch collection of Oriental quotations has: ‘What is the life of Man? A candle in the wind, hoar frost on the roof, the spasm of a fish in the frying pan.’ A poem by the Chinese poet Bai Juyi (772–846) describing the illusory character of reality contains the phrase ‘a candle’s flame in the wind.’ A Latin emblem book by the French author Denis Lebey de Batilly (1596 edn) has a picture of a man seated at a table amidst classicist architecture. On the table is not a candle but a classical oil-lamp with burning wick. Big clouds with faces and puffed-up cheeks blow at the flame. The Latin motto is (in corrected form): ‘QUID EST HOMO SICVT LVCERNA IN VENTO POSITA [what is Man but a lamp in the wind].’ The four-line Latin commentary says, in translation (from German): ‘Man is like a small lamp, which in the dark night is exposed to the winds blowing from all sides. His flame of life feeds on such meagre, such unreliable oil – it is extinguished when the gale of Death grabs it.’ The English novelist George Meredith later majored in wind-blown candle images in several of his novels. ‘The light of every soul burns upward. Of course, most of them are candles in the wind. Let us allow for atmospheric disturbance’ is from his novel, Diana of the Crossways, Chap. 39 (1885), where it is spoken by the heroine. Charles Joaquin Quirk, an American Catholic priest and a professor at Loyola University, published a book with the title Candles in the Wind in 1931. There is also a book with the same title by Maud Diver (1909). Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a play entitled Candle in the Wind (1960) about moral choices in any society, either communist or capitalist. The original Russian title was Svecha na vetru: (svet kotoryj v tebe) [(A) candle in the wind: (the light which is in thee)], which refers to Luke 11:35. Of course, Taupin may not have been aware of any of these earlier uses. Indeed, according to Philip Norman’s biography of Elton John, Elton (1991), Taupin heard that someone had applied the phrase to the singer Janis Joplin (1943–70), ‘also doomed to early death from drugs’, and took it on from there.
can do! ‘Yes, I can do it!’ in a sort of Pidgin English, popular in the Royal Navy before the First World War. The opposite no can do was established by the time of the Second World War.
can I do you now, sir? From ITMA, and one of the two greatest catchphrases from the BBC radio show (1939–49). It was spoken by Mrs Mopp (Dorothy Summers), the hoarse-voiced charlady or ‘Corporation Cleanser’, when entering the office of Tommy Handley, as the Mayor. Curiously, the first time Mrs Mopp used the phrase, on 10 October 1940, she said, ‘Can I do for you now, sir?’ This was soon replaced by the familiar emphases of ‘Can I do you now, sir?’ that people could still be heard using decades later. Bob Monkhouse recalled (1979) that Dorothy Summers said: ‘Oh, I do wish people wouldn’t expect me to be only Mrs Mopp. That awful char. I never wanted to say it in the first place. I think it was rather distasteful.’ She seems to have been the only person to detect any double meaning in it.
can I phone a friend? Contestant to host (Chris Tarrant) in the original British version of the TV quiz Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (1999– ). Before answering questions, contestants were encouraged to firm up their resolve by consulting the studio audience or by phoning a friend who had been lined up in advance.
cannon fodder Soldiers regarded as people whose only purpose is to get killed in battle. This may be seen as a translation of the German Kanonenfutter (known by the 1840s) or the French chair à canon (current at about the same time). However, a letter from Captain Richard Pope, describing Marlborough’s cavalry in 1703, uses the phrase with confidence, suggesting that it was an established concept even then: ‘Such a set of ruffians and imbeciles you never beheld, you may call them cannon fodder, but never soldiers.’ Indeed, Shakespeare has the phrase ‘food for powder’, meaning the same thing, in Henry IV, Part 1, IV.ii.65 (1597).
(a) can of worms An unpleasantly complicated problem, as in such phrases as ‘that’s another can of worms’, ‘let’s not open that can of worms’. The image is that of opening a can of tinned food only to find that it is full of writhing maggots. So the implication is that it would be better not to look into something in case it presents unexpected problems. Probably of American origin, by the late 1940s. ‘Mr Berger has opened, in an old American phrase, a fine can of worms. He is suggesting that an impeached President, should he be found guilty, could appeal to the Supreme Court’ – The Times (22 May 1973).
can snakes do push-ups? See IS THE POPE.
can’t be bad! Congratulatory response to good news, popular in Britain in the 1970s – ‘I’ve made a date with that well-stacked blonde in the typing pool’ – ‘Can’t be bad!’ Possibly linked to the usage in the Beatles’ song ‘She Loves You’ (1963): ‘Because she loves you / And you know that can’t be bad…’ ‘Further up the pecking order is the 27-ish woman who left to set up a gilt-trading operation at a rival for £300,000. “She’s nothing special, but she’ll stay three years and do an okay job for them, and from her point of view it can’t be bad”’ – The Independent (13 May 1994); ‘Colin Montgomerie three-putted for the first time in the week as he shot a 72 for 279, but he insisted: “After taking four weeks off and tying for 17th place in America, that can’t be bad”’ – Daily Record (6 March 1995); ‘Uncomfortable parallels between Dracula and Nicolae Ceausescu, the former Stalinist dictator, meant that such a gathering was impossible in the Communist era. But now Europe’s second poorest country after Albania can cash in on the legend. Can’t be bad for garlic growers either’ – Financial Times (22 May 1995).
(he) can’t chew gum and fart at the same time He is really stupid and incapable. The most notable use of this (presumably traditional American) jibe was by President Lyndon Johnson about the man who was eventually to turn into another US President: ‘That Gerald Ford. He can’t fart and chew gum at the same time’ – quoted in Richard Reeves, A Ford Not a Lincoln (1975), and in J. K. Galbraith, A Life in Our Times (1981). This is the correct version of the euphemistic: ‘He couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.’
can’t pay, won’t pay Slogan adopted by those objecting to the British government’s Community Charge or ‘poll tax’ in 1990 and by other similar protest groups. Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay was the English title of the play Non Si Paga! Non Si Paga! (1974) by Dario Fo, as translated by Lino Pertile (1981).
(you) can’t throw a brick without hitting…It is very easy to do something because you can’t miss. ‘Combe Regis is just the place for you. Perfect hotbed of golf. Full of the finest players. Can’t throw a brick without hitting an amateur champion’ – P. G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens, Chap. 2 (1906/1921). ‘In a Lancashire cotton-town you could probably go for months on end without once hearing an “educated” accent, whereas there can hardly be a town in the South of England where you could throw a brick without hitting the niece of a bishop – George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). Obviously, this is a development of what appears in Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, Chap. 37 (1869): ‘I could throw a rock here without hitting a captain…You’d fetch the captain of the watch, maybe.’
can we talk? Stock phrase of Joan Rivers, the American comedienne and TV chatshow host, by 1984.
(the) canyons of your mind Title phrase of Vivian Stanshall’s 1968 hit song ‘Canyons of Your Mind’ (with the Bonzo Dog Band): ‘In the canyons of your mind / I will wander through your brain / To the ventricles of your heart, my dear / I’m in love with you again.’ Curiously, the phrase was taken from the 1966 Val Doonican hit ‘Elusive Butterfly’ (written by Bob Lind, who had recorded it himself in 1965): ‘You might have heard my
