I'm sitting here watching St. Louis University play against Louisville and St. Louis' mascot is a Billiken. I thought to myself, WTF is a Billiken? I'm willing to bet you were thinking the same. So, naturally, I went to the land of all answers. Wikipedia. I rocked a wiki and here's what I found.
"The Billiken was a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream. In 1908, she obtained a design patent on the ornamental design of the Billiken, who was elephant-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. To buy a Billiken was said to give the purchaser luck, but to have one given would be better luck."
So there you have it. You learned something today. You're welcome.
-KT
"The Billiken was a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream. In 1908, she obtained a design patent on the ornamental design of the Billiken, who was elephant-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. To buy a Billiken was said to give the purchaser luck, but to have one given would be better luck."
So there you have it. You learned something today. You're welcome.
-KT