Thursday 10 October 2013

An elephantine tale - Post Script

 A comment on yesterday's post reads: "I don't think they found all the ashes if they fit in a peanut butter jar". A good point and one that I followed up by e-mailing the Athletics Department at Tufts University for clarification. It wasn't long before I received this reply: "Phyllis Byrne, the administrative assistant in the athletics department, dispatched a colleague to the ruins to collect some of Jumbo's ashes in an empty peanut butter jar. Jumbo's spirit lives on in his hybrid container (a Peter Pan Crunchy lid on a Skippy jar), and since 1975, university athletes have rubbed the jar for good luck. And when a new athletics' director is named, there is a ceremonial "passing of the ashes" to the successor".

I was hoping for a photograph but the image I found on the Internet will have to do. And, finally, for UK readers wondering what a Skippy jar is - it's another brand of peanut butter. Given the choice, which would Jumbo prefer? Me? Neither. I can't stand the stuff.

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