I was all set to write a serious piece about Ferguson, Mo., racism and bigotry,
What happened there in August was horrible, and the thought that something like that could happen in the United States in 2014, as opposed to 1964, made me angry. Have we learned nothing from our turbulent history?
The trouble is, it’s hard to write well when you’re angry.
So I decided to write about the Duck That Ate San Pedro instead.
I first heard about the Giant Rubber Duck a few months ago when it showed up in Hong Kong.
I was all set to write a serious piece about Ferguson, Mo., racism and bigotry,
What happened there in August was horrible, and the thought that something like that could happen in the United States in 2014, as opposed to 1964, made me angry. Have we learned nothing from our turbulent history?
The trouble is, it’s hard to write well when you’re angry.
So I decided to write about the Duck That Ate San Pedro instead.
I first heard about the Giant Rubber Duck a few months ago when it showed up in Hong Kong.
Wow, that’s one giant duck, I thought when I saw it on the Internet. Was it real or was it Photoshopped?
The Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and spreading information, but it can also mislead (which is no different from television). When you see something online, it can sometimes be hard to tell what is real — or if it is real, just how big it actually is.
After all, anybody can take a regular-sized rubber duck, and use forced perspective and other camera tricks to make it look huge, just like the “giant” monsters of a bad science-fiction movie.
But then, more giant rubber duck photos showed up — and on legitimate news sites such as CNN. The duck was real.
The giant rubber duck was created by a Dutch artist, Florentijn Hofman. As it turns out, Hong Kong was just one stop on a world tour for the ducky art. In fact, since 2007, there have been several versions of the duck in countries from France to Brazil to Japan to Australia. The duck seems to have invaded a lot of places in China and relatively few ports in the United States — Pittsburgh, Norfolk and Los Angeles are the only U.S. stops so far. People have started petitions to bring the duck to San Francisco, New York and other locations, but with no duck luck so far.
Clearly, it was a huge coup for Los Angeles to get the duck for the Tall Ships Festival — and the festival organizers knew it. The duck appeared prominently in ads and on posters. The city had a large “baby duck” tour Los Angeles landmarks.
So, it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody that people would come to see the duck, rather than the ships — including people who hadn’t paid for festival tickets or parking. Especially when the duck was docked in the highly-visible Downtown Cut near popular Ports O’ Call. Ports O’ Call merchants reacted like they had killed the duck that laid the golden eggs when festival organizers moved the rubber duck to a more secluded location behind the Cruise Ship Terminal — where you would have to buy a ticket to see the duck.
It’s not that far from Gardena to San Pedro, so I hope some of you reading this got to see the giant duck while it was in town.
As I write these words, the giant duck is still at the harbor and should still be there until it floats off on Sept. 6. Interestingly, once the festival was over, they moved the duck back to a more visible spot.
Now, with so many problems in the world, some may wonder — did I really have to devote so much space to a giant rubber duck? And yes, I did.
Because the world needs humor and cheerful absurdity. And that is what a giant rubber duck is. It is also cute and silly, and if China and the U.S. can agree to love a duck, then there is still hope for this world.
James Fujita is a former GVN news editor. He works as a copy editor for the Visalia Times-Delta in California’s Central Valley. Fujita can be contacted at jim61773@yahoo.com
