It seems like there are a lot of new folks around. Does everyone know about the duck?
There was a duck. The duck was popularized in CM lore by Terry P. It was often evoked to change the topic, defuse a tense situation, or because it was such a good looking fucking duck.
The duck on the left has sacrificed everything in order to further its career, and now has no family contact, but the duck on the right has refused to do this and is beloved by all of its relations.
OR
The duck on the left has full tenure and few worries in life, while the duck on the right worked just as hard, did all the right things, and yet struggles to support its young.
In my backstory further down in these comments, I didn't mention that I had sent a collection of duck photos to RGM Crystal about 8 hours before I sent in the story of Stilton's Tractor, which was also about a week after I'd first wrote to her about the existence of the photos.
These particular photos were actually taken several minutes apart. Their juxtaposition in this context is the sole genius of the CM editorial staff. If I were Crystal, I would claim that it was indeed an intentional reference to the previous story.
OPH, it’s true that “and” & “or” both fit here. I was considering your section on spare time, tenure & families from the tractor post when I wrote it. I think I’ve done well in that regard, but I’ll always wonder if I could have spent more time with them and still reached my current position. That was my initial reaction to the piece.
The second thing that the tractor post did was make me think about the hours we put in. Money-driven industries are often renowned for the time people spend working, but academia isn’t. In fact, the perception is pretty much the opposite, which abets people like Scott Walker in his career. I wonder if academia isn’t far more precarious than other lines of work which attract much less criticism.
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I was at a conference, and between sessions I was hanging out near a pond. First I spied the drake and thought, hey, I can snap a few photos of this duck for CM. Then I saw what turned out to be the rest of the family. While I watched over the course of several minutes, the drake was alternately near and several meters away from his family. I got some photos of both conditions.
The funny thing is, as I shot some of the photos, I was thinking almost the same thing as Pissed Pumpkin was, humorously. "Typical absentee dad, leaving the hard work to the mom."
Something thing I considered was, as I understand it, with certain waterfowl, one of the parents will often try to draw a predator away from the babies and the other parent. I've definitely observed this myself with loons. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, in that the DNA has a better chance of being inherited if the babies can be nurtured to adulthood. But I haven't gone so fas as to look into whether it's a behavior seen in mallards.
So we can ascribe whatever anthropomorphic motive we wish.
A journal of scholarship that counts, you say? Have you been hanging out with Jesse Stommel again?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got the reference.
DeleteI'd be even gladder if Stommel's work had references...
It seems like there are a lot of new folks around. Does everyone know about the duck?
ReplyDeleteThere was a duck. The duck was popularized in CM lore by Terry P. It was often evoked to change the topic, defuse a tense situation, or because it was such a good looking fucking duck.
Or maybe this time it's a reference to OPH's story below. Apparently, though we haven't seen much evidence of this fact before, the duck has a family.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the picture is appears that his Duckness may be a dead beat dad.
DeleteThe duck on the left has sacrificed everything in order to further its career, and now has no family contact, but the duck on the right has refused to do this and is beloved by all of its relations.
DeleteOR
The duck on the left has full tenure and few worries in life, while the duck on the right worked just as hard, did all the right things, and yet struggles to support its young.
You could replace "OR" with "AND" and it would be equally valid. (Maybe that was your point.)
DeleteI don't know how to feel about this.
Cassandra very likely scored a direct hit here.
DeleteIn my backstory further down in these comments, I didn't mention that I had sent a collection of duck photos to RGM Crystal about 8 hours before I sent in the story of Stilton's Tractor, which was also about a week after I'd first wrote to her about the existence of the photos.
These particular photos were actually taken several minutes apart. Their juxtaposition in this context is the sole genius of the CM editorial staff. If I were Crystal, I would claim that it was indeed an intentional reference to the previous story.
OPH, it’s true that “and” & “or” both fit here. I was considering your section on spare time, tenure & families from the tractor post when I wrote it. I think I’ve done well in that regard, but I’ll always wonder if I could have spent more time with them and still reached my current position. That was my initial reaction to the piece.
DeleteThe second thing that the tractor post did was make me think about the hours we put in. Money-driven industries are often renowned for the time people spend working, but academia isn’t. In fact, the perception is pretty much the opposite, which abets people like Scott Walker in his career. I wonder if academia isn’t far more precarious than other lines of work which attract much less criticism.
Profit Maker Method
ReplyDeleteYou probably have dreamed of easy online profits. Dreamed of some strategy that instantly will make you a millionaire. Sorry for disappointment, but there is no such a strategy, but there is many ways how you can try to do it. I will explain these strategies in this article!
http://innertradingcirclereview2015.com/profit-maker-method-software-review/
http://innertradingcirclereview.org/profit-maker-method-review-software-scam-or-legit/
Priscilla, there is many ways how you instantly disappoint.
DeleteThe backstory:
ReplyDeleteI was at a conference, and between sessions I was hanging out near a pond. First I spied the drake and thought, hey, I can snap a few photos of this duck for CM. Then I saw what turned out to be the rest of the family. While I watched over the course of several minutes, the drake was alternately near and several meters away from his family. I got some photos of both conditions.
The funny thing is, as I shot some of the photos, I was thinking almost the same thing as Pissed Pumpkin was, humorously. "Typical absentee dad, leaving the hard work to the mom."
Something thing I considered was, as I understand it, with certain waterfowl, one of the parents will often try to draw a predator away from the babies and the other parent. I've definitely observed this myself with loons. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, in that the DNA has a better chance of being inherited if the babies can be nurtured to adulthood. But I haven't gone so fas as to look into whether it's a behavior seen in mallards.
So we can ascribe whatever anthropomorphic motive we wish.