Elephants, a blimp and a happy shopper

Tidbits from the Republican National Convention:

• The Republican convention is something of a political coming-out party for President Bush's twin daughters.

"We just spent two weeks together in Greece," former first lady Barbara Bush said with a joking glance toward 22-year-old granddaughters Jenna and Barbara Bush.

The twins attended the Olympic Games as representatives of the United States, the former first lady said. Former President George Bush was also there.

The young women, known for high jinks and high spirits in college, "bordered on being dignified" in Athens, Barbara Bush said to laughter from a gathering of Republican women. "George and I were a little concerned when the wrestling team — the entire American wrestling team — wanted to date them."

• At the closely guarded convention, even the Fujifilm Blimp has a role in security.

Fuji Photo Film USA Inc., the Valhalla, N.Y.-based U.S. arm of the Japanese film maker, is allowing the New York Police Department use of the blimp to bolster aerial patrols above Madison Square Garden.

Police officials refused to say how the blimp was being used, but Fujifilm spokesman Tom Shay confirmed Monday that NYPD officers were on board, free of charge, at the department's request.

• Elephants milling around Monday outside Tiffany's declared that Republicans may no longer use the pachyderm's image as the party's symbol.

The elephants — truthfully they were actors in gray suits, rubber elephant trunks and big paper ears — said the GOP does not represent properly the "elephant values" of kindness, compassion and caring for their children.

• Delegate Jim Neiman, one of 450 residents of Hulett, Wyo., was impressed with the free entertainment provided by New York's host committee.

The delegates were being treated to prime seats for "Wicked" and "Phantom of the Opera," dinners at 21 and the Rainbow Room, tours of the United Nations and the New York Stock Exchange.

Such diversions, Nieman said Monday, are lacking in Hulett, where "we stay on the phone and talk for 10 minutes even when it's the wrong number."

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg went shopping at Macy's flagship store near Madison Square Garden on Monday and took several delegates with him. Gina Valdez, wife of an Arkansas delegate, said, "I'm just in total awe. I don't even think our mall is this big in Little Rock."

Macy's was offering a 15 percent discount to delegates.

• The Republican National Convention has more than 40,000 miles of cabling to operate high speed computer systems, telephone lines and live television broadcasts.

Verizon has wired more than 12,000 telephone lines and hundreds of broadcast circuits over its fiber optic network, spokesman Daniel Diaz Zapata said.