Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for April 19, 2011

Get ready to rent the Carpet Doctor!

Isn’t that suppose to be a WHITE elephant?

That’s obviously an Asian elephant, so it probably weighs less.

How do you know if an elephant is hiding in your refrigerator?

His foot print is in the jello!!!

Someone’s going to be in deep doo doo soon enough.

Can I pull a mother-in-law joke?

Honey, could you move the metaphor out of the living room? I can’t see the television!

….could be worse. It could have been an 800 lb gorilla

I thought it was suppose to either be a pink elephant or a 500 pound gorilla.

I am sure the good husband was simply dealing with an SEP. That is a “somebody else’s problem.” They tend to be invisible since they are a problem for someone other than you. (Thank you, Douglas Adams.)

You don’t discuss the elephant in the room

You don’t poke the 800lb gorilla

The white elephant is sacred and not to be spoken badly of

You see pink or flying elephants when inebriated

@Calvin: that definition of “white elephant” is not the main meaning, and definitely not the metaphorical one. How about, “A rare, expensive possession that is a financial burden to maintain. Something of dubious or limited value.” That seems to be the consensus.

@dtut: And which you can’t get rid of for social or political reasons. It comes from Thailand where the king would give white elephants as gifts. Considered sacred, you couldn’t work them and they were expensive to maintain. And since it was a gift from the king you couldn’t get rid of it.

Sort of like some government programs - expensive, valueless but politically untouchable.

Very appropriate. The GOP mascot. Nice work, Wiley!

@pdchapin, a similar effect was used by several English monarchs, including IIRC, Queen Elizabeth: when she suspected that a noble was plotting against her, she would come and visit with the court for a few months–and once the noble was broke, she’d move on, since a poor noble can’t plot very well against anyone. (I think the French Kings and the Japanese Shoguns just made court so expensive that the nobles, who were required to attend, didn’t have any cash to spare…)

BTW, prrdh, response to your late comment yesterday…

There is a universe in which the elephant is ignoring the people in his living room. Sometimes that universe makes more sense then the one we are in.

“Very appropriate. The GOP mascot.”

If it was the GOP elephant, it would be in the bedroom making sure that nobody was doing anything of which the religious wrong does not approve.

What elephant?

He read “Water for Elephants” and is really pissed.

@RCMinor, if he waits a few more minutes, the elephant might visit him…

if it were a WHITE elephant, she would have gotten it at the church bazaar…

“He followed me home. Can I keep him??”

I thought it was referring to don’t judge a book by its cover.

… so … you really have turned republican?