Becci Lomax of Plymouth, England encountered a baby duckling that was going to be put down because of a lame leg. She took the duck in and nursed it back to health. As Lomax gave the duck, now named Ming-Ming, a dose of physical therapy every day, her 4-year-old son Finlay, who was born with cerebral palsy, watched and learned.
“This is the most amazing thing because in doing physio on the duckling, the same as I do for my son, Finlay took his first three steps after watching me doing the physio with the duckling.
“I was brimming with pride.
“Finlay uses a frame at home but even that’s increased. He said ‘I walk like the duck Mummy’,” says Becci.
Is this quack medicine? We’ll see when she gets a bill. Link -via Fark
*ducks*
Anatidaephobia is the fear that a duck is watching you. The term was coined by Gary Larson, author of the comic The Far Side, who profited from ducks watching people. In these days of contextual advertising, the fear may be well-founded. Link to larger screenshot. Link to text article. -via Bits and Pieces
Quick, when you think about working in a hotel, what do you think about? Being a receptionist? Part of the cleaning crew? How about a coin polisher, a mud manager and … a duckmaster?!
Judy Mandell of the Los Angeles Times writes about the more unusual behind-the-scenes hotel jobs. Take for instance, Jason Sensat’s job. He’s the Duckmaster at the Peabody hotel:
At the Peabody hotel in Memphis, Tenn., five mallard ducks live in a penthouse on the roof. At 11 a.m. each day, they march to the lobby, where they splash in the fountain until 5 p.m., when the ceremony reverses. Duckmaster Jason Sensat feeds, cares for and trains the ducks.
"Many think this is a fun and glamorous job, and quite often it is with media interviews, travel and celebrity honorary Duckmasters — but it’s also a dirty job, as cleaning up after the flock is part of the job too," Sensat says.
Read the rest: Link | Jason’s official page at The Peabody
The Cornish Duck Company checks its eggs for viable embryos. They noticed one egg had two embryos, and were prepared with a camera when it hatched.
Local vet Barrie Fleming, who advised the farm’s owners, Roger Olver and Tanya Dalton, on the hatching, said they had “every reason to be excited by the birth” as it was a very rare occurrence.
The BBC has the video. Link -via Arbroath
Lucky the duckling is very lucky to have been adopted by an orthopedic nurse after she broke her leg, which left her with a right foot that bent the wrong way. Alison Morgan of Newport, Wales, performs physical therapy on the leg and had a special duck sandal made for Lucky by cobbler Kelvin Reddicliffe. The sandal protects Lucky’s toes from irritation and further damage.
Mrs Morgan is now trying to raise the £500 needed for an operation which entails Lucky’s right leg being broken again and set correctly. Since the damaged leg is now seven millimetres short, Lucky will also have rods inserted around it to lengthen the limb a small amount every couple of days until it is in line.
‘It is quite complicated but it works on humans and the vet is quite confident it will work,’ added Mrs Morgan.
‘Lucky is a real character and full of life. That is why I didn’t want to go with the first vet’s opinion about being put to sleep.
‘She loves having a cwtch (Welsh for a cuddle) and is as good as gold.’
Link -via Unique Daily
Peterman’s Eye has a neat post analyzing (okay, more like gently ’splaining) the classic "man walks into a bar" joke. Includes some of the best groaners I’ve read in ages, such as:
Inanimate objects can walk into a bar: Three fonts walk into a bar. The bartender says, "We don’t serve your type in here."
And my favorite:
A duck walks into a bar. And he says to the bartender "Got any grapes?" The bartender says "No, I don’t have any grapes." The duck walks out, sorely disappointed.
So the next day, he walks back into the bar, asks the same question, gets the same answer.
The day after, he walks back into the bar, and again, asks the bartender, "Do you have any grapes?" The bartender, having still not figured out why this duck seems to think he may have some grapes, says to the duck, "No, and if you come back in here tomorrow and ask me if I have any grapes, I will nail your bill to the bar!"
The duck frowns, turns around, and walks out of the bar. So the next day, the duck walks back into the bar, and asks the bartender "Got any nails?"
The bartender says, "No."
So the duck says, "Got any grapes?"
Truck driver Joe Mansheim of Minnesota has an unusual assistant: his duck! Mansheim raised Frank from a duckling and now the duck accompanies him every day at work.
Joe and Frank chat often on the road. Joe complains about the traffic; Frank quacks. And driver and duck go about their business delivering construction materials throughout the Twin Cities for Elite Transportation Systems.
“Pretty good looking site we helped build there,” Joe says proudly to Frank as they descend into the Mississippi River valley with a load of steel for the new I-35W bridge. “We did a good job Frankie.”
To many of the construction workers he encounters in his deliveries, Joe is now known as the “duck man.”
The title suits him just fine.
“I go to these construction sites and you always see everybody smile when they see him,” Joe says.
Two mirrors, a little bait, and a camera. Put them together and you have Mother Nature making a kaleidoscope! Music by the Swiss band Larytta. Video directed by Körner Union. A pleasant way to spend three minutes. Link (embedded YouTube clip).
This YouTube video is about Toby the dog and Sheila the duck who adopted him at the Mac Kenzie farm. The video, first spotted at Cute Overload, has gone viral because of the sheer WTF-ishness of it (is that a word? No? It should be!).
The video is subtitled in Spanish, but you really don’t need to speak a whit of Spanish to understand what happened. And be prepared to be amazed: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Update 11/24/08 – It’s a viral ad by an Argentinian ISP called Arnet – Thanks Demian!
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