"chicken little"

[Charles Doyle]

In news reports about the Colorado town that's being threatened with an "avalanche" of toxic water, a local official is quoted: "We're not just crying 'chicken little' here."

In the old story, it was Chicken Little (or Chicken Lickin') himself who did the "crying"--viz., "The sky is falling!" However, a Google search yields several hundred instances of the construction "cry 'chicken little.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215/ap_on_re_us/mining_town_threatened

--Charlie
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org