Good Questions: Political Animal Symbols, Grandfather Clocks & More
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Every Friday, we tackle a bunch of viewers' burning questions. This week, Heather Brown explores the symbols for democrats and republicans, grandfather clocks and spider webs vs. cobwebs.
Sharon wants to know: How did the donkey and elephant become symbols for the Democratic and GOP parties?
Let's start with the donkey. During his 1828 Presidential campaign, opponents of Andrew Jackson, called him a jackass. He thought it was funny, so he used it in ads and the symbol stuck.
The elephant had appeared in couple of political cartoons in the 1850s, but didn't catch on until it was published in Harper's Weekly in 1874. In a cartoon called "Third-Term Panic," famed cartoonist Thomas Nast showed interest groups as different animals and the elephant is on the edge of the pit labeled "the Republican vote."
Mike from Eden Prairie asks: Why are they called grandfather clocks?
It comes from an 1875 song called My Grandfather's Clock, whose inspiration came from a large clock at an English inn. The story goes that the moment the owner of the inn died, the clock stopped working. So, Henry Clay Work, a visitor to the inn who happened to be a songwriter, thought the story would make a great song.
The song ends with the lyrics, "But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died."
With Halloween approaching, Dirk asks: What's the difference between spider webs and cobwebs?
According to Jeff Hahn, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, cobwebs are just old spider webs that the spider doesn't use anymore.