It's 1881. You're real estate speculator James Lafferty, and you've just bought a large parcel of empty, scrubby shoreside land just south of Atlantic City. Problem is, it's cut off from the AC streetcar line by a deep tidal creek. How do you entice potential buyers to make the trek over the inlet and look at your property? Build a giant elephant, of course. Capitalizing on the celebrity of P. T. Barnum's famous Jumbo, Lafferty built 65-foot tall Lucy the Elephant, the first of three giant elephants Lafferty built (followed by Cape May's Light of Asia and Coney Island's Elephantine Colossus). He even took out a patent on the very idea of buildings shaped like animals. Though threatened by decades of neglect and rot, the Save Lucy Committee began preservation efforts in 1970, moving her to her present site and giving her a complete restoration.
posted on Jun 22, 2008 - View this thread

Once home to the Naval Shipyards, L'Ile de Nantes now houses the workshop of Les Machines de l'Ile. The 12m high Elephant made its debut last year (although a predecessor was spotted 3 years ago) and is the first of 3 major projects to be undertaken.
posted on Jun 12, 2008 - View this thread

Elephant Paints Self Portrait. I'm not sure what to say about this except that its pretty cool.
posted on Mar 30, 2008 - View this thread

Film-maker John Downer fitted four elephants with cameras and set them loose. Many of the resulting photos are cute, and some seem made for photoshopping.
posted on Mar 24, 2008 - View this thread

SingleLinkYoutubeFilter: "Punch Trunk" (Chuck Jones, 1953).
posted on Feb 26, 2008 - View this thread

Free Ice Cream Day
posted on Oct 17, 2007 - View this thread

The logo for the 2008 GOP convention was unveiled this past week. People are like, what? “Wide stance? Check. In Minneapolis? Check. Prison stripe-wearing? Check. Starry eyed? Check.”^*
posted on Oct 7, 2007 - View this thread

Maybe you saw Minesweeper: The Movie. It's typical of Elephant Larry' s sweet, savvy sketch comedy. If you like the parody preview genre, don't miss out on Gummi Bears: The Movie. If you don't, try the short film "Baby, Fix That Fusebox!" or perhaps Tall Cop, Short Cop, which is directed by none other than John Landis. My personal favorites are WHIT Radio and the audio (and stage) sketch Francophone. And guess what? If you live in LA, you can see them for free tonight at the Comedy Central Stage.
posted on Sep 25, 2007 - View this thread

Listen to the Newmarket Police try to deal with "Outstanding Elephants". Elephants from the circus escape. They wander through Newmarket, Ontario, munching on people's landscaping. Some people out for a late night walk happen upon them and (mp3) call into the York regional police to report the errant elephants. Then the police (mp3) deal with getting them back to their home. "Police said no one was hurt, no property was damaged and that the two well-behaved animals spent their free time snacking on plants and trees as they wandered the quiet downtown streets." Sounds like a good way to spend a summer evening to me!
posted on Jul 12, 2007 - View this thread

Fantastic dancing and singing.
posted on Feb 14, 2007 - View this thread

Elephant jokes. (And the reason some of you don't like them. Cretins.)
posted on Jan 16, 2007 - View this thread

Dick Meyer, editorial director of CBSNews.com, calls a duck a duck.

The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do.

posted on Nov 17, 2006 - View this thread

Elephants are self aware (news story, videos). "As a result of this study, the elephant now joins a cognitive elite," said researcher Frans de Waal at Emory University. [Past posts tagged with "elephant" "elephants"]
posted on Oct 31, 2006 - View this thread

Bombing Iran- Rove's Plan to Wag the Elephant. The Elephant is Iran. Iranian Elephant Art. The Lion-Elephant Rock.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Another fucking elephant post. This one however is followed up by a link to inhumanly good animation done by another French dude at the same company.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Oliphaunts were one of the many amazing sights Sam Gamgee wished to see when he left The Shire. He immortalized the mighty beast in a song, and many other have paid tribute over the years. Origami, a design firm, and even a political cartoonist, it is clear that everyone who's anyone loves them some Oliphaunt. They even have their own urban dictionary entry, and a rather unflattering variant. Be careul not to confuse them with the Mastodon. Nor should be they be considered simple war elephants. The Oliphaunt towers over them all.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Why is the elephant the symbol of the GOP? In large part, we can thank cartoonist Thomas Nast, who, on November 7 of 1874, published this cartoon, showing Republicans as a rampaging elephant tearing up the flimsy planks of the Democratic Party. He wasn't just a man who made elephants though; considered to be the father of political cartooning, Nast's illustrations helped bring down Boss Tweed, argued for the abolition of slavery, and hated the Irish.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Never underestimate the powers of elephant sex. It's linked to the human sixth sense, it's been the subject of symbolic controversy, and it's even inspired new methods of artificial insemination. And what of interspecies sex? Purely hypothetical given a two-party system.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Peale’s Mastodon by Paul Semonin. "The skeleton preoccupied American patriots for another reason less scientific in nature–one which helps to explain why its bones were eagerly sought after by the Founding Fathers during and after the Revolutionary War. For many Americans, the great beast had become a symbol of the new nation’s own conquering spirit–an emblem of overwhelming power in a psychologically insecure society." An interesting article about Americans trying to understand mammoths, from Common-Place, the web magazine of early American history. Semion wrote a book on the topic, American Monster.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Philadelphia Zoo will close Elephant Exhibit, America's "Oldest Zoo" announced Thursday - becoming the 11th zoo in the US to stop displaying elephants since the Detroit Zoo made such a decision two years ago. Is this officially a trend yet?
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

We all know what it is. We've all seen it, or heard of it. Maybe it's hard to talk about it. At any rate, we don't, generally. Or at least we're said not to. In fact, it seems that we do refer to it pretty often. It's interesting how all of the uses end up pointing to problems in the pachyderm population itself, from population pressures to captivity. Of course, the Victorians started the tradition with a particular item of interior furnishings, which forms the basis of a game, and may be the foundations of pachyderm communications.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Baseball's White Elephants: When the Philadelphia Athletics joined the American League, Muggsy McGraw derided the team as White Elephants ^. Though the team has moved on, the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society still follows the Elephant Trail.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Elephant Never Forgets.
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

baby elephant walk
baby elephant walk
baby elephant walk
posted on Oct 8, 2006 - View this thread

Artists in the Animal Kingdom. A gallery including, most notably, work by Ruby the Elephant, 1973-1998.
posted on Sep 21, 2006 - View this thread

Elephant sanctuary. Where do the old, sick and needy elephants go after outliving their “usefulness” in the US? Hohenwald, Tennessee is home to 2700 acres given over to Asian and African elephants. There are some pretty heart wrenching stories in their newsletter (pdf). This is the same state that hung an elephant in 1916 (mefi post). (elephant cam at the sanctuary)
posted on Sep 18, 2006 - View this thread

Elephants Dream - A computer-generated movie made using open source applications
posted on May 19, 2006 - View this thread

The Sultan's Elephant. A 42-ton wooden elephant materialises on the streets of London, thanks to Royal de Luxe (previously). The BBC has lots of background, including video (obligatory YouTube link). More from TimeOut and The Guardian.
posted on May 6, 2006 - View this thread

Horrton Hears a Heart. Poe + Seuss = this.
posted on Oct 18, 2005 - View this thread

The Royal de Luxe Parade in Nantes, celebrating Jules Verne from what I can gather. A staggeringly beautiful event, go see! I may weep. (via the greatwaxy.org)
posted on May 30, 2005 - View this thread

Elephant Dung Paper.
posted on Feb 22, 2005 - View this thread

Lending a trunk , Sumatran elephants have been enlisted to search through the tsunami debris in Banda Aceh. Sure-footed, with a keen sense of smell, they can find bodies still buried in rubble; Medang, who can lift 3 tons, pulled a tree off a Toyota. Here are some Sumatran elephant photos and a bunch of elephant links, Sumatran and otherwise.
posted on Jan 22, 2005 - View this thread

"Infrasonic Symphony" Intrigued by reports of tsunami-avoidance behavior in Sri Lankan wildlife? Science News offers a timely antidote to simplistic mumbo-jumbo about the "mythical power" of animal earthquake detection with a detailed look at the latest research into low-frequency sound. The Elephant Listening Project is particularly interested in elephant rumblings that produce Rayleigh waves. "Mammals, birds, insects, and spiders can detect Rayleigh waves," notes The Explainer. "Most can feel the movement in their bodies, although some, like snakes and salamanders, put their ears to the ground in order to perceive it."
posted on Jan 3, 2005 - View this thread

Erwin, TN . My hometown, small and wholly unremarkable. Unremarkable, of course, except for our history of elephant hanging. In 1916, after Mighty Mary killed one of her handlers, the circus had to put her down. The problem: they couldn't poison her and they couldn't shoot her. The solution: hang her from a railroad crane. The story has become one of local folklore. Any of your hometowns have strange histories worth sharing? (inspired by MoFi)
posted on Nov 30, 2004 - View this thread

The White Stripes will be appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, for the entire week, starting tonight. The band is promoting their new album called Elephant.
posted on Apr 22, 2003 - View this thread

Edison electrocutes an elephant at Coney Island. I never knew this horrifying bit of history until I read about it via rscharm's MeFi post.
posted on Jul 23, 2001 - View this thread