lord love a duck
so i was thinking i should get a duck.
last night paul and i saw winged migration, a beautiful movie composed of breathtaking footage of migratory birds in flight. lots of geese, many cranes, even some penguins...but only one duck, a mallard who accidentally wandered into a v of southbound greylags.
and it got me thinking about the ducks i've known and loved. there are many fine ducks at the lakefront in burlington, mostly female mallards; we admired them and their chicks this summer. then there are the ducks we watched at leamington, sheltering themselves snugly under docks and in the recesses of the boat hulls just under the engines. (why leamington encourages kids to blow them out of the water, i'm sure i don't know.) and then there are the ducks at the peabody in memphis — maybe one day, if i work very hard, i, too, could become a duckmasterTM.
by far, the duck i love the most is jim dodge's fup, a hilarious little fable about a twenty-pound flightless mallard. (fup duck...get it?) please read it if you haven't.
so, back to my plan. we're getting a duck (just one, i think). i don't really foresee any major problems caring for our duck, particularly since she will earn her keep eating slugs and snails — after all, "it literally costs only pennies per day to feed a duck or goose"! and they can even be diapered. what's not to like?
if nothing else, it'll give lunch something to herd.
Comments
I saw the trailer for that when I saw Whale Rider. When it comes to my local theatre (in 3 weeks, I think) I shall see it.
Will you be naming your duck "Howard"?
Posted by: Ed | August 22, 2003 02:20 PM
i was thinking maybe mittens.
Posted by: julie | August 22, 2003 02:28 PM
This is the most exciting news I have heard in a long time. Are you serious? I hope so.
Posted by: auntb | August 22, 2003 05:16 PM
depends. will you and mom come babysit for mittens when paul and i go to las vegas?
Posted by: julie | August 23, 2003 11:00 AM
what about an open sack of feed and baby pool in the basement.....with a webcam?
Posted by: auntb | August 23, 2003 12:06 PM
dear betty, i am monumentally relieved that you asked if she was serious. this will deflect some of the mocking that i was told to expect. love, terry
Posted by: terry | August 23, 2003 06:40 PM
but, betty, who will change the diapers?!
Posted by: julie | August 24, 2003 09:31 AM
Put down (get it, ..down..?) a tarp, and when you get back from your vacation, you have ready made fertilizer for your garden..
keep making up problems, I can keep making up solutions.
Posted by: auntb | August 24, 2003 05:21 PM
you are full of solutions.
Posted by: julie | August 24, 2003 06:11 PM
When I was a kid, a boy who was a couple of years older than me and lived up the street had two ducks named Simon and Garfunkel. They had an old bathtub in their (postwar tract house neighborhood) backyard and Simon and Garfunkel would splash around in it and make duck noises. Till they were eaten by a terrier from down the street. The end.
Posted by: Molly | August 25, 2003 12:47 PM
po' simon and garfunkel. oddly enough, my family also had a bathtub in the backyard. my mother painted it orange and planted impatiens in it.
Posted by: terry | August 25, 2003 09:07 PM
We had an old claw-foot bathtub that my mother put wallpaper on the outside of, added big cushions and voila! A comfy place for Cori to read in her room.
I have no comment on the prospective ducks.
Posted by: Cori | August 27, 2003 11:40 AM
comfy! i have a tiny baby bathtub on a stand on my deck, filled with dying plants. see it here.
Posted by: julie | August 27, 2003 11:46 AM