Tuesday, January 29, 2008

just for Tammy

Swim and Sleep

Not all birds are perchers, though. Naturally, the web-footed ones cannot perch on a twig. Ducks and geese usually sleep on their natural element, the water, and ride at anchor, like ships in harbor, as far away from the land as possible, safe from their enemy, Brer Fox.

If the water is a moving stream, they automatically and unconsciously paddle with their feet to keep themselves afloat and in the same spot, and to save themselves from being carried near the shore. This is a sort of self-protective instinct that they possess. Strange and wonderful, isn't it?
There may be a chance for you to do a good turn in the winter time. Sometimes ducks go to sleep in the middle of the pond, and the pond freezes over, and then Brer Fox may come on the scene and try to reach the birds. So break the ice near the edge, if you are there in time, and save the ducks.

from Catcher in the Rye:
--Holden repeatedly wonders where the ducks go when the pond freezes over. Could this be because he wonders where students go when they flunk out of school?

More answers.

Personally, I think they simply walk on the ice.

2 comments:

Tammy said...

but where do they go?! where do they go when they walk on the ice?!
the answers escape me and i'm mentally tormented to the point where i can't capitalize my letters anymore!
the poor ducks. . .
the poor ducks. . . woe be to the ducks. . .

LaVon Baker said...

Tammy has answered my mental quandry for years... 'if a person lives with another person for long enough, will they begin to think like the other person.' YES! In other words, Ken's sense of humor has "rubbed off" on Tammy. On the subject of "where do ducks go when the ice freezes," Tammy got the last laugh.
It was fun to "google" though. Holden won the google count. There was a good one from a Cosby Show script.