The story I heard was Topsy went rogue and killed some jackass who fed her a lit cigarette instead of peanuts.

The elephant Edison killed to prove his point was named Topsy. There's a film of him electrocuting her that you can see on a mutoscope (!) at the Coney Island Museum. There's also a guy who works there who looks like The Dude who will tell you Topsy's tragic story in great, colorful detail.

The Baltimore public library has a great zine and minicomics collection. Chicago has a great zine collection forming too. There are great zines everywhere (if you know where to look) despite the ubiquitousness of the blogosphere.

Many years ago someone sent me a website where a designer had written his own personal brand guidelines. It was detailed and clever, things like "Joe's yellow stocking cap is an integral element of his brand identity. Joe should never be seen without aforementioned cap" and "Joe's beard should never be less than x inches long, not to exceed 2x inches". Everyone in our design studio had a hearty laugh. How eerily prescient the guy must have been...