Liland,

. . . (note: "geoduck" is the correct spelling; "gooey duck" is the customary pronunciation, though etymologically it is closer to "gwee" than to "gooey", being from the Lushootseed g^wídeq [the e should be rotated 180°, i.e. a schwa], Lushootseed being the anglicized indigenous name of the language(s) of Puget Sound, from the Skagit down to Squaxin Island).

Thank you for taking the time to add this information to the list. It's good to see that indigenous words and names are used (even if spelling tends to defy colonizers). I poked around in MS Word and in the HTML book and was unable to find a way to reverse that e. The heuristics of this thread are a real treat! Gotta throw something into the conversation, since the piscatorial puns have all been taken. Though with this segue to Ling-uistics* I should be able to come up with something. (*The "cod" is silent).

I've seen the fish thrown in the market, and I've seen clams "flying" all up and down Puget Sound at low tide. The seagulls pick them up off the sand and fly over rocks to drop and crack them open. I used to see crows mimic the gulls up at English Camp on San Juan Island--and as smart as they are, their accuracy is not that of the gulls. It was always interesting at low tide on foggy days out at the camp to hear the intermittent crack! of the hits and splat! of the misses on the mud. You couldn't see much, and the fog intensified the sounds. It's the stuff of myth-making.

Maggie