Guten Abend tsofian,

so it is still October 15th, and finally I had time to try it. I went to our local public library and looked for something interesting.

Some where right out (“The most beautifull names for your baby”), some simply to boring (“The encyclopedia of gardening”), and some were to tempting (“The worlds finest motorcycles”).

Finally, I found this books:

1) From the sports/recreation dept.:

“Wracks im Mittelmeer. Tauchfuehrer” (“Wrecks in the mediterranean sea. A divers guide) by Kurt Amsler and Andrea Ghisotti.

Exactly what it says on the cover. A guide to 32 wrecks – planes and ships -, most of them before the Italian coast. Each wreck is described and carefully illustrated.

2) From the dept. of zoology:

“Die beruehmtesten Tiere der Welt” (The most famous animals in the world”). by Harald Gebhardt and Mario Ludwig. Small, but amusing book about, well, famous animals.

Among others, it contains an article about Jumbo, the most famous elephant of all times. Jumbo was born around 1860, captured in 1861 and first sold to the zoo of Paris, before he landed in the London Zoo. There, he became very popular, because he carried in the next years about one million (!) children on his back, among them Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt. In 1881, Jumbo became to randy to ride on and was considered a danger to the public that maybe had to be shot.

Lot of crying children, and finally Jumbo was sold to P.T. Barnum. Barnum shipped him to the USA and made a lot of money with him, before Jumbo met his destiny in 1885. He was killed by a freight train.

3) Last stop, history dept.

“Zipp und zu! 50 Erfindungen, die unser Leben wirklich veraenderten”

(Zipp and closed! 50 inventions that really changed our life.), edited by Franz Metzger. Exactly what it says on the cover. The book ignores big stuff like cars, computers or the pill and concentrates on the small things. From the 50 things – among them the zipper, the fridge and the credit card – I choosed the mason jar. There were a few patents for mason or kilner jars in the late 1800s, and why not something innocent instead of the usual etheric armageddon device from the mad scientist?

So, we have a sunken ship, a famous elephant and mason jars. All the ingredients for a nice adventure.

20,000 lbs under the sea

After Jumbos tragic collision with the freight train P.T. Barnum is down – the poor elephant should have made him a lot of money in the next years. His good friend, Buffalo Bill, tries to cheer him up.

“Look, padner, your elephant is dead, but at least you wont starve.”

“What?” asks Barnum confused.

“Well, dude, as you allways said, Jumbo weighted about 15,000 lbs. And if at least half of it is meat, you have enough to chew for the next 20 years…”

Barnum gave his old friend a sourly grin, and the famous old cowboy hero continued.

“Well, most of Jumbo will be spoiled within a few days. To bad that you can not make jerky beef out of him…”

Buffallo Bill stopped. P.T. Barnum had this mad gleam in his eyes that he know all to well. The showman smiled.

“Bill, old cowpoke, have you ever heard of this fellow Mason?…”

After the frantic exchange of telegramms and consulting with glasmakers, engineers and the best chef of Paris P.T. Barnum produced his most amazing act – the world biggest mason jar, containing the world biggest elephant.

For a few years, the pickeld pachyderm attractds the crowds of North America. Finally, P.T. Barnum decides to bring Jumbo back to England. And France. And Germany. And… Europeans go totally nuts, and the tickets are sold before Jumbos ship even leaves New York.

To bad that the ship never arrives. Crew and passengers are saved, but the cargo is lost. A desperate P.T. Barnum asks the best and bravest engineers and adventurers for help.

Can our brave heroes locate the wreck, find the Jumbo-Jar and bringt it back to the surface? Or will P.T. Barnum has to give -shudder- the money back?

And what if someone wants Jumbo for himself and tries to snatch him away? Or the citizens of Atlantis do want to keep him?

So much for my idea. What do you think?

Bye

Ingo