I am looking for a different, common English idiom that expresses the same thing as a snowball's chance in hell.  My teacher says I use this expression too much, and that it is not appropriate for every essay. I need a same meaning like something very cold in a hot place to have a little chance.


Question: No value for $TERM and no -T specified
Answer: If you do this

if tty -s
then
    : # your tput commands
fi


It will fix your problem.
Without the -s option tty will either display your tty or write "not a tty"