You Can't Pluck a Rubber Duck
If it looks like a duck, takes to water like a duck, but is as smooth as a baby's bottom in the bath, then you can de-duck-t it's a rubber ducky and not a contender for canard à l'orange.
So what's the goss' on this perhaps most famous of the 'rubber ducky' phenomena, the cute little yellow hollow floaty that decorates the water of many a babe at bath time?
Well, it appears that the birth of the rubber ducky toy dates back to the days of Charles Goodyear and vulcanised rubber. But the original rubber duck, unlike the many companies that profited from latex and its various rubber products, didn't float, and was a solid chew-toy. Then along came the sculptor, Peter Ganine, in the 1940s, who, doubtless with his mind firmly fixed on future generations of bubs-in-tubs, was the first to produce the concept of a floating hollow rubber ducky toy, modelling it after his sculpture of a duck, and with its bottom as flat as a pancake, a flounder, a witch's tit, or a monster-truck roadkill (take your pick).
Whatever the original looked like, it couldn't have been half bad, as he patented it and reportedly sold 50 million.
So next time you listen to the splishes, splashes and squeals of your babe in the bath, and laugh at the squeak of the yellow rubber floaty, accompanied by a jet of water and bubbles emanating from its bum-crack, spare a though for the far-sighted founder of this fickle floating phenomenon and his fortuitous fortune.
Or perhaps you'd rather sing along to the strains of Ernie from Sesame Street, warbling to the following:
Oh, Rubber Duckie, you're the one,http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com
You make bath time so much fun!
The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.
Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.
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Comments
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #24
Not sure if I should congratulate or commiserate, Jim. Depends whether or not you subscribe to the old adage “A duck in the hand’s worth poop by the pool”. 🤗
Jim Murray
4 years ago #23
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #22
Your talk of friendly Canucks, Randy, Is quite riveting, I swear, And varied wildlife, though quite handy, Seems to be too much to ‘bear’. 🐻🦆🐻
Randall Burns
4 years ago #21
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #20
Not to mention Daffy Duck either, John. 🦆
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #19
Not to mention Daffy Duck either, John. 🦆
John Rylance
4 years ago #18
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #17
My de-duck-tion, Prav, is that the duck-tionary should be de-duck-ated to ducks. I’d duck-ument more but my hand’s tired and I can’t find anybody to take duck-tation. 🤣😂🤣
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #16
Sure thing, Prav. No score at the crease is quite a pre-duck-ament. 🤣
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #15
Sounds too raduckal for me, Prav.
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #14
And then there's cricket, John, when “out for a duck” definitely doesn’t in-duck-ate you've gone shopping for dinner.
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #13
Ah, Jerry Fletcher, to share or not to share, now that’s quite a pre-duck-ament. 🤣
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #12
Always happy to assist with the daily dopamine dose, Ian Weinberg. They make them in chocolate also. 🤣😂🤣
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #11
I just had a look at the Florence Duck Store website, Pascal Derrien. Now I remember that you in-duck-ated this to me previously. Pity Florence isn’t closer, or I’d duck in and have a gander. 🤣
Jerry Fletcher
4 years ago #10
Ian Weinberg
4 years ago #9
Pascal Derrien
4 years ago #8
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #7
it's a paraducks, John. 🤣
John Rylance
4 years ago #6
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #5
Thanks for your pro-duck-tive contributions, John. Of course the duck-filled-fatty-pus is quite rare here in Oz, possibly because it's natural habitat is slowly being era-duck-ated and so it tends to lead a noma-duck lifestyle. 🤣
Ken Boddie
4 years ago #4
Looking forward to a duckumentary on your travels, Paul Walters.
John Rylance
4 years ago #3
John Rylance
4 years ago #2
Paul Walters
4 years ago #1