Kryponite and garlic

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:22 PM -0500 1/3/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>_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

One of them is only used to keep the psychiatrists away.

LH

>
>On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  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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>
>
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>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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