Answer Monday

Huh?

From the Pleistocene of central Florida, it is a mineralized and weathered tusk—whether of a mastodon or a mammoth I’m not sure, but from a relative of the elephant...hence my hint “one to remember.” A further clue was the distinctive cross-hatch pattern characteristic of ivory. Congratulations to—well, to me, for stumping you all. But kudos to Steve Bowden who discerned what would have been a really clever allusion to Pliny the Elder in the quotation from Walter Pater’s Marius the Epicurean if only I had thought to include it. (In fact, the quotation only appeared because I was in need of over-the-top eloquence on short notice.) A jaunty wave of the proboscis to Dan Phelps and his fabulous wheat penny for the photograph and his description of the further clue.

Glenn Branch
Short Bio

Glenn Branch is Deputy Director of NCSE.

branch@ncse.ngo