The Elmer Problem
What’s with the name Elmer?
Most people hear glue, cartoons, or someone’s great‑uncle. But Elmer once meant “noble and famous” and still shows up in a few odd places. Apparently there’s an Elmer Yglesias living in Peru. He has a Facebook. I don’t. (Read Why this site?) Elmer Bernstein scored Ghostbusters and An American Werewolf in London, two personal favorites. In Contact, the space test dummy was “our robot passenger, who we lovingly call Elmer.” And Elmer J. McCurdy - an outlaw whose embalmed body toured carnivals and star of a new Broadway show, Dead Outlaw? From doppelgängers to crash dummies to a Tony-nominated Broadway show, at least Elmer gets around.