Talk:Mary (elephant)

message: I've researched and completely re-written this. Wyss 83.115.7.118 03:49, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Changes

message: How could you say that Mary had an intention to step on Red Eldridge's head? "stand and deliberately stepped on his head, crushing it."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.244.9.250 (talk) 21:17, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Deliberately can mean "slowly and carefully" instead of "on purpose."  Either way, with so many different versions of the story in circulation, perhaps it is best to remove the adverb -- Foetusized (talk) 14:36, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Human actions 

message: Singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky recounts this story in his song "Mary the Elephant," on his 2006 cd Tulips for Lunch.  I wouldn't add it to the article unless there are other cultural references to discuss.  The last verse of Chuck's song implies that their have been other ballads about the incident: "She never went to prison/ No court sentenced her to hang/ Like some storytellers told it/ And some singers often sang."  Does anyone know of other ballads about Mary the Elephant? -MrFizyx 19:36, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  cultural references? 

message: I wish to dispute the move from "Mary the Elephant" -> "Mighty Mary."  The original title was the least ambigous title, and has become a common way to refer to her, the nicname "Murderous Mary," has also become quite common, but seems rather unkind.
I a Google fight:
* "Mary the Elephant" 127 unique hits/535 total, mostly about this elephant.
* .
* "Mighty Mary" 291 unique hits/520 total, about many topics.  including a sailboat (adding the word "sail" somehow increases the results).  Various women named Mary (e.g. Mary J. Blige), etc.  Subtracting the word elephant somehow increases the results
* "Murderous Mary" 258 unique hits/688 total., mostly about the elephant, but some are related to Mary Queen of Scots, etc.
I vote to revert the title, but will listen to others. -MrFizyx 19:46, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: "Mary the Elephant" goes against naming conventions, and it won't stick any more than Topsy the Elephant did. Mary (elephant) might. TheMadBaron 04:23, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see the problem with WP:NAME if "Mary the Elephant" really is the animal's common name (which it appears to be).  I gather that this was not a common reference for "Topsy". -MrFizyx 19:29, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Then again, maybe you're right, some articles just refer to her as "Mary"... -MrFizyx 19:36, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  In this context, "the Elephant" is just a disambiguation term used so that people know which Mary is referred to. It wasn't her name. It would be strange to refer to "Martin Luther the man", and perhaps stranger still to refer to "Martin Luther the Man".... TheMadBaron 23:05, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I didn't know Wikipeida was written for elephants. Even if it was read by elephants, I doubt they'd muddle Martin Luther with one of their own. Mary the elephant is the least ambiguous and most neutral name for her. Gwen Gale 16:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Name of the article