UCSB Geography staff held their Christmas party at “Ye Cold Spring Tavern” last Friday, and, yes, pink elephants were there. No, not too much alcohol was involved (Dylan and Patricia’s bottles of Syrah and Bill’s pints of porter excepted), but the pink elephants were very real, nonetheless. Read on!
In case you don’t know, a “pink elephant party” is a variation on a gift exchange of “white elephant” gifts. “A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth. The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance. In modern usage, it is an object, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered to be without use or value” (source). Well and good, but I have yet to understand the “pink” part of “pink elephant party” as it applies to Geography staff—apart from a suspicion that such things originally were dreamed up by women planning a girly night out party (or it may have something to do with the color of certain staff members’ eyes by the end of the party).
Sexist or not, the rules of our “pink elephant party” were complex. The staff arbiters (all women, as it happens) asked that there should be “no gag gifts, hallucinogenic gifts, or gender-specific gifts”; furthermore, the value of each gift was not to exceed $15, all gifts were to be gift-wrapped with no indication of the giver, numbers were to be picked out of a hat, and the unwrapped gifts were to be chosen from the resulting pile of gifts in order of the lowest number upwards and then unwrapped by each chooser. Then it really got complicated, if not downright cutthroat. Round two and final round three consisted of allowing each person, in order, to decide if they wanted to keep the gift they had or to “exchange” it for someone else’s gift. Needless to say, the spirit of taking quickly replaced the spirit of giving, and a lot of (mostly) good-natured laughter ensued.
To illustrate all the above, Dylan first chose a gift-wrapped package that turned out to contain a white elephant gift that he’d given last year at a similar event and which had been re-gifted. It was an “EZ Egg Cracker,” “as seen on TV,” kitchen gadget that just about everybody can live without. Talk about karma! Anyway, Bill had mercy on Dylan by swapping his set of 12 mini jars of assorted Southwest hot sauces for Dylan’s unwanted gift in round two—and then stabbed Dylan in the back in round three by taking the hot sauces back, leaving Dylan with his original culinary kitsch. (To be fair, Bill relented, only after finishing his second pint, and gave Dylan the hot sauces—but with the proviso that Dylan had to also keep his EZ Egg Cracker and re-gift it again next year.)
So, what’s all this silly staff party stuff got to do with Geography, apart from the subject of elephants and the historic Cold Spring Tavern? Primarily, it has a lot to do with staff support for the entire Department. Budget cuts over the last few years have resulted in fewer staff with fewer pay increases having to handle an ever-increasing workload, and Geography staff members have rallied by putting in a lot of unpaid extra hours and using teamwork, camaraderie, and a terrific sense of humor to cope with the load. As they say, “a family that plays together stays together,” and the current combination of staff fraternity, commitment, and dedication helps the Department retain its premier status.
Mo Lovegreen, our staff Executive Officer, is all too well aware of the Department’s needs and the staff overload, and she footed the bill for the staff’s pink elephant party, partly because she knows how important staff morale is, partly because she’s downright generous by nature, and partly because she’s got a great sense of humor and likes to encourage and share it. Regarding the latter, let’s just say that the pink elephant gift that Mo ended up with wasn’t hallucinogenic at least, but it certainly did get a laugh (and you’ll have to ask her to explain the rest!).
Thanks, Mo, from all the staff!
“Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations.” – Erica Jong
Article and photos by Bill Norrington
