Bean says: we were served similar things known as (a) elephant ears, or (b) beaver tails

I know an elephant ear as a baked rather than a fried goodie. It's roughly heart-shaped, kind of like the shape of two elephant ears laid against each other (guess they'd have to be severed from the elephant's head, but let's just skim over that part) and glazed with a bit of sugar syrup. I've heard them called palmiers as well, but I think that's a slightly different shape of the same thing.

I wonder if the elephant ear Bean refers to is what I call fried dough, and what my Midwest-raised sweetheart calls a funnel cake - a flat piece of dough fried in hot oil and sprinkled with powdered/confectioner's/10x sugar and cinnamon. (could this be Bill's spider cake as well?)