meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to light the (blue) touchpaper’
UK, mid-1950s—to set a course of exciting or dramatic events in motion—refers to firework instructions such as ‘light the blue touchpaper and retire immediately’
Read More“ad fontes!”
UK, mid-1950s—to set a course of exciting or dramatic events in motion—refers to firework instructions such as ‘light the blue touchpaper and retire immediately’
Read MoreJanuary 1984—from a television advertisement for the hamburger chain Wendy’s, in which an elderly lady demands where the beef is in a huge hamburger bun
Read MoreFebruary 1940—coined by the British actor Jack Warner in ‘Garrison Theatre’, a BBC radio comedy series devised to entertain World-War-II audiences
Read More1941—expresses exasperation or derision at a clumsy, erratic or idiotic person—popularised by Jimmy Clitheroe in his radio programme The Clitheroe Kid (1958-72)
Read MoreUSA, 1990s—purveyor of doom, especially agent of death, force of suicide—refers to Jack Kevorkian (1928-2011), U.S. physician and advocate of assisted suicide
Read MoreUSA, 1932—originally used of the impunity enjoyed by gangsters when one of them was murdered—therefore, did not originate in the 1942 film Casablanca
Read MoreUK, 1985—the blue flashing lights and two-tone siren used on an emergency vehicle when responding to an incident; by extension, the emergency services
Read Morean extremely beautiful woman—alludes to the description of Helen of Troy in Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’—has given rise to countless adaptations
Read MoreUSA, 1942—used with reference to clutter, jumble, mess—alludes to the overstuffed closet in U.S. radio comedy series ‘Fibber McGee and Molly’ (1935 to 1956)
Read MoreUSA—derogatory appellation for a group of persons—1950 Los Angeles’s gangs of hoodlums—1955 self-designation of a group of Hollywood celebrities
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