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The Song Challenge:   A Party for the Passing of Popular Popsicled Pachyderm Poop Picker -- A memorial was held last weekend in Springfield, Missouri, for a popular circus elephant groomer whose body was frozen when he died three months ago so his friends could attend the funeral.   The funeral was held under the big top and included circus music, food and even an elephant-drawn wagon carrying the casket. In the center ring, the main attraction was Albert "Shorty" Sharp, who stood 4 feet, 7 inches tall, when he wasn't on his tiptoes grooming pachyderms. Sharp, who spent 50 years in the circus, died May 12 of heart failure while traveling through Wisconsin with George Carden Circus International. After the funeral festivities, Sharp's body was taken to a cemetery on the wagon, drawn by the elephants he cared for.   "My circus was out on the road when Shorty passed away and only a few of his friends would have made the funeral," said ringmaster and owner George Carden. So he decided to freeze Sharp's body at a Springfield funeral home until all of his friends could come. "This is not so much a funeral as it is a celebration to say 'thank you' to Shorty for his dedication," Carden said Thursday. "Shorty was a little man with a great big heart." Like most circus employees, Carden said, Sharp was completely dedicated to his work. Sharp groomed elephants for circuses in Florida and Texas, and even tended to Bimbo, a water-skiing elephant who appeared in a 1950s TV series called "'Circus Boy.' "In the circus, there is no such thing as calling in sick or getting tired, the show must always go on," Carden said. "Shorty was always there. He had no family, so he lived and breathed the elephants."

A Funeral Service for Shorty by Bradypus
(Tune:  The Teddy Bears' Picnic)

If you go down to Springfield today
You're in for a big surprise
The sights you'll see in Springfield today
You'll never believe your eyes
For circus folk from far and from near
Will smile and laugh, perhaps shed a tear
Today's the day, a funeral service for Shorty

If you can see the Big Top today
There's music and flags and drums
Elephants pulling a hearse today
They're cheering as Shorty comes
He died on the road, from friends far away
They kept him on ice for this special day
Today's the day, a funeral service for Shorty.

Shorty groomed the elephants
He fed and tended the elephants for fifty years
Four foot seven tending elephants
Buffing their tusks, combing their tails and cleaning their ears
Shorty's whole life was elephants
In Florida, and Texas, and on TV shows too
Though now he's dead, the show must go on
Let jugglers juggle, and clowns toot a horn
Today's the day, a funeral service for Shorty.

If you go down to Springfield today
The ringmaster with his whip
The tightrope walkers, acrobats too
Will jump with a double flip
The horses prance, the lions roar loud
There's never been such a great circus crowd
Today's the day, a funeral service for Shorty.

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