Tilting at windmills Tilting at windmills Tilting at windmills is an English idiom that means attacking imaginary enemies. The expression is derived from the 1605 novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, and the word "tilt" in this context comes from jousting. The phrase is sometimes used to describe either confrontations where adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic justifications. It may also connote an importune, unfounded, and vain effort against adversaries real or imagined for a vain goal. The phrase comes from an episode in the Cervantes novel wherein protagonist
The Eel (fictional character) The Eel (fictional character) The Eel is a pulp fiction character, a gentleman thief of "courageous action and questionable morals," created by Hugh B. Cave, writing under the pseudonym Justin Case. Short stories about The Eel originally appeared from 1936 to 1942 in the "Spicy" magazines issued by Culture Publications. In the first of the series, "Eel Trap," the author introduces the character thus: Cave would later explain, in his foreword to "Escapades of the Eel", that it was his admiration of author Damon Runyon that led him to write the adventures using "the same present-tense, first-person narrative style that