Popular name for salvarsan, a chemical compound for the treatment of syphilis. Syphilis had been a deadly scourge for centuries until Paul Ehrlich, a German physician and bacteriologist (1834-1915), discovered a substance effective against it. It is also known as "606" because it was the 606th substance that Ehrlich was experimenting with. In 1908 Ehrlich shared the Nobel Prize in medicine with Elie Metchnikoff for their work in immunology. Ehrlich named his discovery Salvarsan, meaning "salvation", but "magic bullet" has taken over in the popular imagination. Today, by extension, a magic bullet may be the longed-for cure for any deadly disease, whether medical or economic or social--in other words, a panacea.
melting pot, the:
The notion that the vast majority of American immigrants have been or will be blended into a simple entity---Americans. A memorable statement of this concept is expressed in Israel Zangwill's "The Melting Pot" (1908).
use: A melting pot is boiling over with the neighborhood's resentment toward the newest arrivals.
Molotov cocktail:
Simple grenade that can be made by amateurs. It consists of a bottle filled with flammable liquid, like gasoline, and a wick that is ignited just before throwing. It was first used against tanks during the Spanish Civil War. Named after Vyacheslav Molotov (1890-1986), minister of foreign affairs for the U.S.S.R. from 1939 to 1945.
moxie:
Once the name of a popular American soft drink (also called "tonic", or "pop" in the New England area), "moxie" has acquired a variety of related meanings: dash, vigor, strength, aggressiveness, heartiness, pep, courage, skill.
Use: "If we are going to succeed, we need a sales staff with more moxie".
The movie is a parable of how an everyday citizen, an everyman, can fight corruption in high places and win.
mushroom cloud:
White radioactive smoke rising in the shape of a mushroom to about 20,000 feet above the earth---when a nuclear bomb is exploded.
