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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Duck Blogging / Semi-Respite Open Thread: DUCKS!

Semi-Respite Open Thread: DUCKS!

by Anne Laurie|  March 30, 202011:56 pm| 49 Comments

This post is in: Duck Blogging, Nature & Respite, Open Threads

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VIDEO: ???? As France continues its #coronavirus confinement, wildlife is claiming back some of the public space. Ducks are no longer content to stay near the Seine river, they now wander the quiet streets of Paris as on Friday evening near the Comédie Française theatre pic.twitter.com/gacaOvvcbK

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 29, 2020

Wildlife finally returning to Thames. Nature is healing?? pic.twitter.com/d6uBxSaIAx

— ruby?? (@roobeekeane) March 29, 2020

Not ducks, just a few Brooklynites failing to observe proper social distancing:

Start your week off with a moment of #ZooAndAquariumZen, courtesy of red panda cubs! pic.twitter.com/KFahdROEnT

— Prospect Park Zoo (@prospectparkzoo) March 30, 2020

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Previous Post: « Tentative Good News, John Prine Edition
Next Post: COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Monday/Tuesday, March 30/31 »

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 31, 2020 at 12:00 am

    what is a “semi-respite” thread?

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    March 31, 2020 at 12:06 am

    Shouldn’t French ducks be wearing berets?

  3. 3.

    Aleta

    March 31, 2020 at 12:06 am

    Many scenes of  goats venturing with increasing confidence into the emptied streets of a Welsh town that’s shut down.

    https://twitter.com/AndrewStuart/status/1243329253288169473

     

    eta:   From the 3rd or 4th  day of his story:

    Andrew Stuart @AndrewStuart

    They know exactly what they’re doing. Have some lunch from a bush and then go for a lie down in the churchyard

    I, for one, welcome our new goat overlords

  4. 4.

    Jerzy Russian

    March 31, 2020 at 12:07 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   “semi” means “half-assed” and “respite” means “welcome break”.   That is my reading, at least.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    March 31, 2020 at 12:08 am

    Ducks?

    Buddy Hackett has a duck story.

    :)

  6. 6.

    Jerzy Russian

    March 31, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @NotMax:  You can keep the duck.

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    March 31, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    it’s the Eric the Half Bee of respite threads.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    March 31, 2020 at 12:10 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    what is a “semi-respite” thread?

    A thread about truck stops?

    :)

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    March 31, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @Jerzy Russian: That’s like the classic definition of ‘seminar’: “Semi, meaning half” and “ars, meaning ass”, ergo “any half-assed discussion”.

  10. 10.

    burnspbesq

    March 31, 2020 at 12:16 am

    My old neighborhood in Orange County had a coyote problem even before this. Can’t imagine what it’s like now.

  11. 11.

    scav

    March 31, 2020 at 12:17 am

    @dmsilev: Ze French Ducks, it does not matter what dey wear upun dair heads. It is ze attitude zat iz important, ze style, ze élan.

  12. 12.

    scav

    March 31, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @scav: Ze je ne sais quack!

  13. 13.

    bmoak

    March 31, 2020 at 12:28 am

    I was once chase by a goose in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.  A lot of wildlife in there.

  14. 14.

    Jerzy Russian

    March 31, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @dmsilev:

    I had never heard of that, which is amazing considering the hundreds of seminars I have gone to over the years.

    meaning ass

    Speaking of which, a “burro” is an “ass”; a “burrow” is a “hole in the ground”. Evidently not everyone knows/knew this, since my late father often spoke of people who struggled with these concepts.

  15. 15.

    L85NJGT

    March 31, 2020 at 12:32 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll finds Biden getting 55 percent support, versus 45 percent for Trump.

     

    If there was any more evidence needed, Biden has a thirty point lead for the nomination. But some just refuse to get it. kos pointing out AOC is consciously uncoupling from Sanders won’t help. The Senator and his inner circle see politics as a zero sum game, and anything short of a metaphorical pipe wrench to the head, will not register. Because self-validation can only occur if a corrupt system keeps him down.

    If Senator Sanders wishes to continue to tilt at windmills while a minimum 200,000 of his fellow citizens die, that’s his choice, but history will not judge him kindly.

  16. 16.

    Anne Laurie

    March 31, 2020 at 12:36 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: what is a “semi-respite” thread?

    My personal definition:  We’re still (mostly) talking about The Only Topic These Days, but trying to keep it to uplift, jokes, personal stories & light snark.  You can blow off steam about your besieged family or idiot coworkers, share rude jokes, lament the tragedies & triumphs going unnoticed elsewhere.

    No impersonal tragedy porn or copypasta rants about politics/politicians.  I think I give y’all enough other threads where you can share that already!

  17. 17.

    joel hanes

    March 31, 2020 at 12:41 am

    @L85NJGT:

    epistemic closure is not just for “conservatives”

  18. 18.

    Anne Laurie

    March 31, 2020 at 12:42 am

    @Jerzy Russian: Pretty much, yeah.

    @burnspbesq: My old neighborhood in Orange County had a coyote problem even before this. Can’t imagine what it’s like now.

    If they’re like New England coyotes, they were mostly taking advantage of the people-related trashcans, the rodents those trashcans attracted… and the feral-or-not cats connected to the people.

    Those coyotes are probably pissed that their new food resource has suddenly collapsed on them!

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @dmsilev: And have big walrus mustaches.

  20. 20.

    Mallard Filmore

    March 31, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @Anne Laurie:

     

    We’re still (mostly) talking about The Only Topic These Days

    And the topic is “ducks”, so …

    Why a duck?

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 12:47 am

    @NotMax: Home On The Road

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    March 31, 2020 at 12:47 am

    FYI, Cooking with Cannabis drops on Netflix on 4/20.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @burnspbesq: Who’s getting chomped?  We have so many rabbits in Chicago.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    March 31, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Mallard Filmore:

    You should feel honoured. This post is dedicated to your … people, as it were.

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @L85NJGT:

    If Senator Sanders wishes to continue to tilt at windmills while a minimum 200,000 of his fellow citizens die, that’s his choice, but history will not judge him kindly. 

    Oh that ship sailed in 2016.  Pouty Asshole’s supporters fucking over Hillary and bringing on 4 years of horrors.

  26. 26.

    Cleardale

    March 31, 2020 at 12:54 am

    @Mallard Filmore:

     

    Because goose doesn’t rhyme.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 12:54 am

    @NotMax: Cannabis as ingredient, or cooking while stoned? ?

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 1:05 am

    this orangutan telling a thrilling story to an entranced audience of otters pic.twitter.com/ZUusnQfpnI— iucounu (@iucounu) March 30, 2020

  29. 29.

    West of the Rockies

    March 31, 2020 at 1:05 am

    @scav:

    Okay, that right there was funny!

  30. 30.

    James E Powell

    March 31, 2020 at 1:09 am

    @L85NJGT:

    If Senator Sanders wishes to continue to tilt at windmills while a minimum 200,000 of his fellow citizens die, that’s his choice, but history will not judge him kindly.

    I don’t think most people care how history will judge them and if they do, they have an inexhaustible capacity for justification.

    It’s possible that in 2016 Sanders did not realize that his bullshit smearing of Hillary Clinton would help Trump win. But in 2020, it is no longer possible to justify opposition to the Democratic nominee.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 1:15 am

    @Cleardale: Let’s put that to the test.

    GOOSE!

    FUCKS!

    Works for me.

  32. 32.

    Mallard Filmore

    March 31, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @Amir Khalid: “The Cocoanuts” with the Marx Brothers.

    Groucho: “Here’s the viaduct leading over to the mainland.”

    Chico: “Why a duck?”

    At about 33:33 into the movie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5izciEMkvw

  33. 33.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 31, 2020 at 1:21 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Both.

  34. 34.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @NotMax:

    Buddy was good.

    That was hilarious.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    March 31, 2020 at 1:27 am

    @burnspbesq:  @Anne Laurie:

    My old neighborhood in Orange County had a coyote problem even before this. Can’t imagine what it’s like now.

    Huh. Two nights ago a raccoon walked up to our front door, bold as brass, and stood there looking at me through the kitchen window with an obvious, impatient air of “Well, what are you waiting for? Let me in already.” We see plenty of raccoons in our very urban neighborhood, but generally at a distance and in the act of getting out of sight. This was a first – it didn’t occur to me that it might be because the world has changed so much around them.

    I didn’t let him in, though.

  36. 36.

    oatler.

    March 31, 2020 at 1:44 am

    Ducks struttin’ around like they own the place.

  37. 37.

    Anne Laurie

    March 31, 2020 at 1:47 am

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I swear, raccoons (at least the suburban/urban ones) now regard us the way humans regard hoofstock — large, dumb, potentially dangerous but too useful not to keep around!

    Even (almost) 50 years ago, the bucolic Midwestern college where I had my first work-study job was home to some very pushy coons.  Was vacuuming in the Ag Dept office building when I was startled by a *very* large trash panda stomping down the hall; one of the professional janitorial staff said, Oh yeah, usually he joins us for [night shift] lunch on the loading dock, and he gets a little pushy when we don’t show up on time…

  38. 38.

    Emma

    March 31, 2020 at 1:53 am

    Dammit, I got all excited for a Pearl post.

  39. 39.

    columbusqueen

    March 31, 2020 at 2:02 am

    @Emma: Me too.?

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 2:15 am

    @Anne Laurie:  Must’ve been cold in winter with the lack of external doors and all. ?

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 2:16 am

    @Emma:

    @columbusqueen: 

    Duck snobs!

  42. 42.

    Emma

    March 31, 2020 at 2:44 am

    @mrmoshpotato: hey, I take ducks where I can find them, don’t get me wrong ;)

     

    But a Pearl post wouldn’t go amiss, just saying ;) ;) ;)

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    March 31, 2020 at 2:56 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Night shift janitors — not us work-study kids, the professionals who did the serious cleaning — tended to leave a loading dock door open, unless it was really cold.  They were the ones shifting heavy equipment into / out of the building, and when the suits weren’t around to bitch, the fewer interruptions the better…

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 2:57 am

    @Emma: Hehe, so true.

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 2:58 am

    @Anne Laurie: And the draft just blew in a trash panda.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    March 31, 2020 at 3:29 am

    @mrmoshpotato: As a fresh immigrant from the Bronx, I actually worried a bit at first about human blow-ins, since the loading dock door was ‘invisible’ from the outside.  But my shift was 8pm-midnight, and there was always another janitor or two within earshot.

    Also, any random strangers would probably have been scared off by the raccoons, protecting their turf.  They got pretty territorial about the dorm dumpsters — we learned not to try putting our trash out after the bars closed.  :)

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 31, 2020 at 3:47 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    As a fresh immigrant from the Bronx 

    Haha

  48. 48.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 31, 2020 at 4:14 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    we learned not to try putting our trash out after the bars closed.  :)

    Never want to mess with a drunk raccoon.

  49. 49.

    WereBear

    March 31, 2020 at 5:27 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Never want to mess with a drunk raccoon.

     
    We once left out a bowl of mini candy bars after retreating from the deck at the lake, and the next morning we found only the wrappers, neatly sliced open.

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