Saturday, February 9, 2013

WHITE ELEPHANT SALE

Gentle Reader, there are such a thing as a white elephant. Contrary to the name, white elephants are actually reddish-brown or pink color in color. Way back in Siam (the country later changed it's name to the Kingdom of Thailand), the King of Siam would give presents to certain members of his royal court. A Royal Court Employee who was obedient got a present of gold and riches. A Royal Court Employee was punished with the gift of a white elephant. White elephants were considered to be so expensive to feed, groom and clean up waste products, that whoever got the white elephant usually ended up filing for bankruptcy. The bankrupted Royal Court Employee would be forced to drop out of the Royal Court of the King of Siam because poor people wasn't allowed to be in the sight of the King of Siam. And a present from the King of Siam can't be given back or sold to somebody else. And as a result, bankruptcy was unavoidable. Today a White Elephant Sale is a sale of useless junk that takes too much money to maintain or continue the ownership of.  I'm not sure how elephants became the metephore for useless junk, because elephants are normally very intelligent creatures.  However, those poor elephants are getting a pretty bad reputation---Especially considering how those creatures have such perfect memory. 
And as I'm lost in thought about elephants, both white and normal colored, here are some photos of classical music singer Hayley Westenra.












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