Thanks to Mrs. Gagg’s packrat tendencies, I now have a new treatment for colds in my armamentarium - for elephants at least                              .

Digging through the apparently endless boxes of memorabilia, the missus came up with a moldering, yellowed November 1942 copy of The Stars and Stripes (the daily newspaper of the US armed forces in Europe - published in London). In this was reported the shenanigans of one Indiana circus elephant named Modoc.

Modoc had been on the lose for 5 days, and lost 800 pounds in weight when former trainer Raymond Dukes enticed her into a truck, and captivity with a “banquet” of bread.

Back safe and sound with the circus, the owner was worried about what she had been exposed to and was reported to have “plans to feed her a large dose of anti-cold medicine -     eight quarts of whiskey - to offset pneumonia she possibly contracted in the Wabash River”.                                                                          

The archetypal pink elephant.

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