The little ones are often yellow.
So what you're saying is that the idea that ducks are yellow is a canard?
1: Oh my god, those ducklings are cute.
I'd at first thought there was an iconic book called something like, or about, a Yellow Duck, but a quick google doesn't turn it up. Hypothesize that the shenanigans involve the infantalizing of ducks, then.
You know what's really bunk? Geoducks! Not even actual ducks!
When did we get the idea that ducks are yellow? Unless you mean the plastic kind, and I assume that's from hatchlings which can be a bit yellowish.
I'd at first thought there was an iconic book called something like, or about, a Yellow Duck
Incidentally, I remember that book being briefly popular among tech geeks as a metaphor for networking.
Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix's most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.The book describes networking in terms even a child could understand, choosing to anthropomorphize the underlying packet structure. The ping packet is described as a duck, who, with other packets (more ducks), spends a certain period of time on the host machine (the wise-eyed boat). At the same time each day (I suspect this is scheduled under cron), the little packets (ducks) exit the host (boat) by way of a bridge (a bridge). From the bridge, the packets travel onto the internet (here embodied by the Yangtze River).
Back before duck ponds went nonsmoking, a lot of your white ducks picked up a yellowish tinge from the second hand haze.
We keep reading Hawaiian Punch all these story books about the world, and then the real thing turns up and I realize how disconnected the storybook version is from the real item. It's like tasting your first grape after eating grape-flavored candy for years.
Absolutely, The Story about Ping. Thank you.
This really puts a smile on my face. I had The Story of Ping (as I remember the title) along with half a dozen other stories in the form of a book + 45 record on which the tale was read aloud. These included Ping, Thumbelina, and Tikki Tikki Tembo (No-Sah-Rembo, Chari-Bari-Ruchi, Pip-Peri-Pembo .. which I see from Wikipedia is about right in terms of spelling, and it still makes me laugh that I remember this sing-song).
Those stories were amazing. When I got a bit older I came to love Peter and the Wolf, when I learned to identify the voices of various instruments.
Children's books should totally incorporate audio in this way to this very day.
12: So what you're saying is that many story books are not all they're quacked up to be?
We've got this one touch-the-textures book, where the elephant is leathery, the snake is scaly, the cat is soft, etc. EXCEPT! They've used the same fabric for every texture! It's kind of mind-boggling.
Every spring when I was a child there were ducklings in the pond in the backyard. They were usually brown-backed, with yellow necks, breasts and underwings.
We keep reading Hawaiian Punch all these story books about the world, and then the real thing turns up and I realize how disconnected the storybook version is from the real item. It's like tasting your first grape after eating grape-flavored candy for years.
Try a Concord grape sometime! You will find out why grape-flavored candy tastes the way it does, and your mind will be re-blown.
I was on a Welch's grape farm once! The grapes tasted exactly like Welch's grape juice, which was a bit weird and fake-seeming.
Or sour cherries versus sweet cherries. I love sweet cherries too, but only sour cherries are the source of recognizable cherry-flavor.
Heebie, I just read the Wikipedia entry for Peter and the Wolf, and you should totally get this for Hawaiian Punch. Hokey Pokey is probably still too young.
I don't know which recording is most favored, though. There's a Leonard Bernstein version -- that's probably the one I had -- and a Sir John Gielgud. I don't know what to make of the Boris Karloff.
Jesus? McQueen, that is? This stuff is awesome for kids. Er, in my opinion.
So why does banana flavored candy taste that way?
20: There is a Peter and the Wolf on PBS this week.
17 Can you get proper Concord grapes down in Texas? I occasionally buy them at the market during their brief season, and even when eaten immediately, they don't compare with my memory of wild version in my backyard as a kid.
19 You've never had good normal cherries. Very recognizable cherry flavor, more so even than sour cherries when eaten the same day they're picked.
OT: I just ate two potatoes and now I'm very full.
24: Hey, speaking of which, the US ambassador to Ireland is at the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game right now. So I guess nothing important is happening in Ireland.
Banana flavor is (in)famously one of the simpler flavors to replicate - one chemical (isoamyl acetate) is pretty convincing all by itself.
There is a Peter and the Wolf on PBS this week.
I'll keep an eye out for it, thanks. I have no idea why people aren't interested in the aural difference between a reed instrument and a string instrument, but there you have it.
24: But did they taste like potato candy?
26: We made that in my ninth grade science class! But didn't trust that we had distilled it well enough to drink it without ingesting other chemicals.
Ooh ooh ooh—I linked to it here before, and I'm not sure it's still on YouTube, but the Peter and the Wolf you want to see is Suzy(?) Templeton's. I'd look it up, but I have to go hear Yo-Yo Ma. Oh, and Bernstein's is a good recording, and, um, some other ones I can't think of right now. Later.
24: then why don't they use that in banana flavored candy?
34: Because candy makers love a challenge?
20: I always thought the Karloff version was canonical. It's the one my Mom played for us as kids, and the one I bought my daughters. Truly excellent.
Avoid Weird Al's Peter and the Wolf.
Ducklings: they be yellow.
I thought the weirdness with artificial flavors was that they just took the most common ester in, say, watermelon, so complex or subtle flavors would likely be poorly replicated?
Concord grapes make Blume swoon. Concord grape wine makes nobody swoon.
Avoid Weird Al's Peter and the Wolf even though it's scored by Wendy Carlos, that is. Don't be fooled like I was!
I had the Disney version, with Sterling Holloway. I'm currently trying to decide whether to take my son to this one.
38: I honestly don't know which one I grew up with, though I'd recognize it in a flash. I have a feeling it'd freak me out to hear a different vocal cadence. But the point is that parents of young children should totally get a recording of it.
Just not Weird Al's version.
39.2: Utter cuteness, to be put in the queue along with the kitten picture that we haven't seen for a while, for when things are grim.
Has Weird Al tried Wagner yet? Because that could be something.
43: Thanks. The beautiful thing is now saved. And also centrally located, blog-wise.
I've never before looked at the kitten picture. Is that a radial saw?
The next pic in the series is more colorful.
I found out tonight that we're getting one of the house cats back, but it's not the one who was crapping in the basement.
YOU SHALL NEVER EAT DUCK AGAIN!
46: Good grief, I never noticed the saw. I don't think there should be a message in the kitty picture. It's just a beautiful kitty, life as we know it, no need to get all angsty about it.
49: Crapping in a box upstairs. Hurray!?
As I remember, white ducks are yellow fresh out of the shell, and brown ducks are brownish. All cute and peeping.
I had not remembered how damn picky C is. Yay for duck-typing.
I saw yellow ducklings once. They were trapped in the bottom of a broken swimming pool. Some guys came and put the ducklings in a cardboard box. They either rescued them or ate them.
Concord grape wine makes nobody swoon.
Antisemite.
Yo-Yo Ma was great, in case you were wondering. Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1. Half the audience was coughing the whole damn night, though, which annoyed me no end.
Speaking of shenanigans, did they stop teaching basketball at UCLA?
Yeah, they drastically reduced the bduget for the sports programs. It was either that, humanistic research, or support for students, and, well, it's hardly a contest.
I'm seeing Weird Al tonight! If he starts on Peter and the Wolf, I will tell him it's deprecated.
And yes, we had several books plus 45s when we were little, and my kids have enjoyed many books plus tapes and now we have just one book and CD left.
63 is pretty grim. All it needs is "And half a chair. And a window."
Bloody luxury! We had to brick up our window to avoid the window tax. And the bailiff was sitting on the chair all the time.
Luxury! Norman Tebbit made us roam from town to town, and we had to eat the bike.
56, 58: there are much better passover wine options available to you, you know.
66: Yeah, well Spiny Norman insisted on sharing the bed with us kids. And he absolutely refused to be the little spoon.
69: well you would say that today of all days.
I have heard that the explanation of artificial banana flavor has to do with the gros michel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana) variety, which was replaced by cavendish in the 50s, approximately.
You want the David Bowie Peter and the Wolf. It also includes Saint-Saëns' "Carnival of the Animals" and Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra".
60: And just a few days after they lost to #4 Kansas by only one point.
Heat...not working...in office...send brandy...
Alcohol fires are an expensive and inefficient way to heat your office, Jmo.
I'm pretty sure she means "Sittin' Up In My Room" Brandy.
You don't get notions that ducks are yellow. You get down.
You can get feathers in notions, but not often down.
