drop anvils on your head?

[Anonymous]

Dear teachers:

I found following in "Word Smart" book by Princeton Review:
"Emanuel abhorred having anvils dropped on his head."

What is the meaning of this sentence and where did it came from?
I tried to search the net and now have a vague idea that it might come from some old day American cartoon. All I know is if someone drops anvils on my head, I'll be near dead.

Thank you!

[Rusty]

I found following in "Word Smart" book by Princeton Review:
"Emanuel abhorred having anvils dropped on his head."

What is the meaning of this sentence and where did it came from?
I tried to search the net and now have a vague idea that it might come from some old day American cartoon. All I know is if someone drops anvils on my head, I'll be near dead.
(I had to search the Internet too. This is my understanding: There was one cartoon, and perhaps others, in which the villian (a coyote) was always trying to catch the hero (a bird called "Roadrunner) to eat him for dinner. One of his attempted methods was to drop an anvil on Roadrunner. Of course, it never worked. The expression seems to have been brought into the language now with a figurative meaning. To drop an anvil on something means to bring it to a sudden, unexpected but definite end. In the sentence above, it is not Emanuel's head that gets the anvil, it is probably his ideas, suggestions, projects, etc. One reference on the Internet mentioned a TV writer who "dropped anvils" on characters in his stories when he wanted to take them out of the plot. He would not necessarily have them killed, only removed completely.)