Kryponite and garlic

[Jonathan Lighter]

_60 Minutes_ reported this evening on professors at Cornell who are
compiling an "elephant dictionary."

Of elephant noises.  At least four distinctive, significant sounds have been
identified so far.

JL

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Kryponite and garlic
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5:49 PM -0500 1/3/10, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 5:37 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>
> >>  > At 9:29 AM -0500 1/3/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>  >>A man was invited to a new friend's house for drinks.  When he
> >>  >>arrived, he noticed strings of garlic hung at the door and all the
> >>  >>windows, and asked his host why he had put them up.  His host
> >>  >>replied, to keep out the elephants.  "G'wan!  Vampires maybe, but
> >>  >>garlic wouldn't deter elephants."  His host replied, "Well, have you
> >>  >>seen any elephants around _my_ house?"
> >>
> >>  So, *that's* what "the elephant joke" is! I've read and, perhaps, even
> >>  heard, this expression for dekkids, without having the foggiest.
> >
> >Well, it's *an* elephant joke. I don't think the joke cycle has a
> >single ur-joke.
> >
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_joke
> >
> >
> Curiously, the relevant one isn't mentioned in this entry, unless I
> missed it.  Here's one version, close to the ones Joel and I were
> remembering:
>
> http://x-judge.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-rule-of-law-see-it-works.html
> Former officials of the Bush Administration and its defenders respond
> to criticism of its torture policies (or as they are wont to call
> them "enhanced interrogation") by invariably claiming as
> justification that no attacks have occurred since 9/11. That
> contention reminds me of the old joke about the New York woman who
> sends her husband to the psychiatrist because he is always snapping
> his fingers. When the psychiatrist asks him why he constantly snaps
> his fingers, he says: "To keep the elephants away." The psychiatrist
> responds by saying that there are no elephants in New York. Whereupon
> the patient responds: "See it is working!" The Bush Administration
> tortured; there were no further attacks; ergo, according to them,
> torture works!
>
> ===============
> Many other variants can be found by googling "keep the elephants
> away" + "it works"
>
> LH
>
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