Travels With A Duck: Mardi Gras Ducks

Monday, February 20, 2012

Mardi Gras Ducks

Went to a friends house for Mardi Gras and she decorated her house with these beauties! The Duckie spirit is spreading!!

The term "Mardi Gras" in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday; in English the day is sometimes referred to as Shrove Tuesday, from the word shrive, meaning "confess." Related popular practices are associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. Popular practices include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, etc. Similar expressions to Mardi Gras appear in other European languages sharing the Christian tradition. In English, the day is called Shrove Tuesday, associated with the religious requirement for confession before Lent begins.

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Friendly Floatees

During a Pacific storm on January 10, 1992, three 40-foot containers holding 29,000 Friendly Floatees plastic bath toys from a Chinese factory were washed off a ship. Two-thirds of the ducks floated south and landed three months later on the shores of Indonesia, Australia, and South America. The remaining 10,000 ducks headed north to Alaska and then completed a full circle back near Japan, caught up in the North Pacific Gyre current as the so called Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many of the ducks then entered the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and were trapped in the Arctic ice. They moved through the ice at a rate of one mile per day, and in 2000 they were sighted in the North Atlantic. The movement of the ducks had been monitored by American oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer.

Frequency

I will put some things "up," so to speak, on some days, and on other days, I will not put things up. Whether or not I put things up will depend largely on whether, on a particular day, the duck is traveling. For example, let's say that on Monday I have something which I want to put up. On that day, I will put that thing up. On Tuesday, though, I might not have anything to put up. I will worry for a moment about not having anything to put up. "Oh no," I might say, "another day has come, and I have nothing to put up. What will happen if someone visits this site and there is nothing new to look at? Will people be angry?" But then I will realize that, chances are, people will not be angry -- that, chances are, people will understand. Most people are pretty understanding. Then again....