BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey

Subject: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 02:38 AM

G'day,

We've got into a heap of animal threads, and I see the Gnomes are roaming too. It seems a raft of Rubber Ducks are about to come ashore after a decade at sea. It's a welcome relief from B&B morning, noon, and night.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 03:47 AM

Every Duck is entitled to a holiday!!!!!!!
QUACK!
Geoff the Duck.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 03:57 AM

There is a bloke somewhere whose job it is to track them so that they don't become a danger to shipping...

Wonder which one has the number 6 on its bottom and will win me a goldfish in a plastic bag?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:00 PM

Danger to shipping?
What are rubber ducks going to do? Gang up and steal the soap from the bathroom?
QUACK!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:31 PM

If it didn't cost so darned much to park at the beach, I'd grab some binoculars and go on Duckie Watch.

You got no luck if you're a rubber duck,
Oh, the trials you'll undergo!
To Seattle bound, you ain't touched ground
Since China, long ago
In '92, from the deck you flew
Into the big bath they call the sea
And you're headed for some friendly shore,
But you won't make Old Maui...

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:40 PM

They went via the North Pole itself, I see from the maps in the paper. Not so much North West passage or North-East Passage - Due North Passage. Even Lord Franklin never tried that.

Through cruel hardship these ducks did go,
Through mountains high of ice they drove
Where the rubber ducks and the flip-flop shoe
Were the only ones who ever came through.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 05:33 PM

On a radar screen they give an anomolous reading - they could be anything!

Rubber Ducky, you're the one, you make bath time lots of fun....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 07:03 PM

Liz

If it's got number 9 on its bottom, will it win an upside down goldfish?

K

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Gareth
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 07:33 PM

Geoff - Plastic Ducks in yor cooling water intake is baaaaad news.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:28 PM

I think there's a film in here somewhere. "Duckie Come Home"

Or perhaps even an Opera - "The Flying Duckman".

Or, of course, an epic novel and film, "Moby Duck".

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: rangeroger
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:57 PM

But what if a Giant Squid gets them? Will they be injected with spermatophores?

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 04:43 AM

I gather that besides yellow plastic ducks, the consignment included green frogs, blue turtles, and red beavers, but exposure to sea water and sun has tended to bleach them all out. They've been floating around for some time now and a few have even made it to NW Scotland.
One oceanographer has been using sitings of them to check on Atlantic current changes.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: fogie
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 12:07 PM

Damn it two of them have got into my bath. Are they dangerous? How should one get rid of them? Are they a harbinger of giant squids, Maybe I've misread this thread? Shall I make a move and leave the water?

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 12:11 PM

remember to move smoothly with little to no splashing. If you splash - it attracts their attention and they might attack (especially the red beavers).

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 06:43 PM

What an odessey!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 06:52 PM

oh, my...I wonder how many sharks or seabirds got a BIG surprise, thinking they had an easy snack!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 07:09 PM

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

This is a great story. It has both heroic and comic overtones. We need more stories like this. As Geoff said: "QUACK!!!"

One worrisome thought...what if these rubber ducks are actually the WMD's that Saddam was accused of hiding? It could be a stealthy long range attack on America that Iraq set into motion way back in 1992 (just after the Gulf War!). Scary, scary... (twilight zone music)

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 10:37 PM

Obviously Weapons of Mass Duckstruction!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 12:32 AM

It appears these Ducky WMD's are Worth Many Dollars. Avon, Massachusetts-based The First Years Inc - the original importers, are offering a $100 US Savings Bond for verified recovery of the bouncy bundles of quack - so get to the beach quack.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 03:08 AM

Mine's the one with the number 6 on it's bottom, I claim my goldfish!!!

Is that $100 each ducky or do beavers fetch a different price?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 03:18 AM

Couldn't work out the price differential, Liz, you'll have to beaver it out youself - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: fogie
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 04:01 AM

Brrr! the waters gone cold and my skin's all white and ridged, I've got them hemmed in by the plughole with a loofah. If I can just reach the plug chain with the back scrubber. Oh no- there's a fish with a clockwork tail swimming under the barrier..... AAAAGGGHHH!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 11:31 AM

Red is my favourite colour for a beaver.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 02:03 PM

I wondered when someone would jump on that...

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 02:13 PM

It really is a fascinating story. Robert Segal interviewed an oceanographer who has been tracking the flotilla.

http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1323675 will take you to the NPR page and you can listen to the interview.

My favorite Sesame Street song is "Put Down the Duckie (if you want to play the saxophone)."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: MudGuard
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 02:29 PM

Could someone please explain to a non-native-English-speaking person what WMD is?
Thanks in advance!

Geoff, remembering your beer mug - have you been at sea when the container dropped off that ship?

Andy/MudGuard

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 04:21 PM

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: MudGuard
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 04:41 PM

Thank you!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 06:33 PM

Or...Warlike Mass of Ducks (bearing down on the coast of Maine as we speak!)

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 04:58 PM

Ducks Maine lining, that's why they're looking down in the mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 04:36 AM

Liz, it all depemds on whose beaver it is. I'm perfectly willing to inspect any beaver and perform a valuation for free.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 03:24 PM

Sing Jeri's song to Rubber Duckie ( Earnie's song of praise to his bath time duckie on Sesame Street ).

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 03:33 PM

I'd love to get my hands on one of the little ducks. It would make a great addition to my toy collection. What a story! Unfortunately with a bounty on their little rubber heads I won't be able to get one. Any 'Catters from the area willing to help me out?

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:51 PM

Just keep checking Ebay - one is bound to turn up there sometime - they'd sell poop if they could get a decent picture of it.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 12:26 AM

Got that right, Liz. One guy sold his soul on Ebay, neatly packaged in a sealed glass bottle, with a signed certificate of authenticity. I'm not sure who bought it...or why. But it did sell. It just looked like an empty glass bottle to me, but you have to ask yourself...would the guy lie about something like that? :-) And don't forget, he included the signed certificate!

A rubber duckie should be fairly easy to find, I would think.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 03 - 10:00 AM

worked for the Emperor!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 23 Jul 03 - 12:07 PM

G'day Folks,

Anyone caught up with what's happening? Have any landed yet? I've just done a Google News search, and can't find anything more recent than 16 July. However, I found a good report from abc News that I missed earlier.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 12:05 AM

Oh you lucky duck!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Helen
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 10:22 AM

ABC Online

Saturday, July 26, 2003. 1:51pm (AEST)

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s910822.htm]

AEST
Rubber ducks spotted floating in the Pacific

An armada of toy ducks is expected to make landfall in Britain within weeks, at the end of an epic 11 year voyage from the Pacific Ocean.

The little yellow ducks were washed overboard from a container ship in 1992.

They have since floated round the United States, through the Arctic and past Greenland.

The remnants of the fading flotilla are now heading down the eastern seaboard of the United States, although a break away group has been spotted heading for Britain.

The American company that made the ducks is offering money to anyone finding them onshore in the US, though the offer is not being made to any British duck finders.


© 2003 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
Privacy information: http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 02:37 PM

In that link Billy the Bus gave there's a map showing "the North Pacific Gyre", a term which I think sounds much scarier than the Bermuda Triangle.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: kendall
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 07:35 PM

Once in the middle of the Atlantic, I threw a plastic bottle overboard, and a few months later, I got a note from someone in the Shetland Islands. Often wished I had kept in touch with him.

Another time, I threw a cheap guitar overboard without a note. Didn't want to hear from that again.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 12:57 AM

The ducks did gyre and gambol in the waves...

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 02:31 AM

Here's a link to a message in a bottle found in Sweden the other day - 60 years after being sent. It wasn't as adventurous as the duckis, as it only travelled 92 miles.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 04:34 AM

Oh dear, there I was checking out Pub Games, when I found a rubber duck with attitude, called Rub My Ducky I wonder if they would keep their buzz after 10 years in the tide?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 09:05 AM

ObSongs: "Old Beer Bottle" (in the DT), ttto "Sing a Song of Cities".

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 10:48 AM

Where are Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks when you need them?
Not to mention the 16 long haired friends of Jesus, in a VW Microbus.
This here's a rubber duck, 10-4 good buddy.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 05:27 PM

Every now and then something strikes me in a really strange way. (No, not like a submarine plummeting from the heavens to bounce off my head.) Have you ever cried and laughed at the same time? All the changes in our lives, all the things that have happened both good and bad, all the tears, all the laughter, all the people who've touched our lives, the hellos and the goodbyes, the ebb and flow of tides, the migration of geese, meteors showers, Mars and sunspots...AND I NEVER HEARD WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DAMNED DUCKS!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 06:09 PM

And I had never heard OF the ducks, till this! Where the f**k Have I BEEN?????? (Rehabbing my bod, really eats the clock and the brain cells).

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 09:02 PM

A likely story! Sounds like a plot for smuggling in illegal aliens to me! Probably even *GASP* TERRORISTS!

Blow `em all outta the water just to be safe. Have the spin doctors and CIA cover it up later.

Subject: RE: BS: Rubber Duckies' Odyssey
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 09:49 PM

No, don't blow them up, they're toxic! (Search Google, you'll see!)

~S~