Western Cultural References
The term "white elephant" came, in English, to mean a spectacular and prestigious thing that is more trouble than it is worth, or has outlived its usefulness to the person who has it. While the item may be useful to others, its current owner would usually be glad to be rid of it. By reason of this, commercially, a "white elephant" might be available to purchase at a very favorable price. An example of such an item might be a mansion whose maintenance costs exceed the capacity of its owners.
In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand a "white elephant stall" at a fair or market has unusual or miscellaneous items for sale that have been donated, as they were "white elephants" to their owners.
Read more about this topic: White Elephant (animal)
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or cultural:
“Signal smokes, war drums, feathered bonnets against the western sky. New messiahs, young leaders are ready to hurl the finest light cavalry in the world against Fort Stark. In the Kiowa village, the beat of drums echoes in the pulsebeat of the young braves. Fighters under a common banner, old quarrels forgotten, Comanche rides with Arapaho, Apache with Cheyenne. All chant of war. War to drive the white man forever from the red man’s hunting ground.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“The personal appropriation of clichés is a condition for the spread of cultural tourism.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)