This commercial postcard advertises the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus's winter quarters in Sarasota, Florida.

Wouldn't you just love to clown around with an elephant? It looks like these guys are having a ball.

Though the guy leaning on this pachyderm's shoulder seems a little down, the guy on top seems on top of the world. I've heard that riding an elephant is one of the things that should be on every one's top 100 things to do before you die.

This card brought to mind the last lines of a poem by Mirabai, the poet-saint of 16Th-Century northern India. "I have felt the swaying of the elephant's graceful shoulders; and somehow you expect me to climb on a jackass? Try to be serious."

You can find more on Mirabai here.