Giant Ducks

When I saw deffrog's blogpost on a bigass duck, well, I thought I drive by a giant rubber duck everyday, and I guess I just take it for granted. 

So here goes...


Okay, I think they took the duck down for bad weather, so that isn't my picture, though to be fair, if it was my picture, it would likely have looked like that.

The large duck is to advertise the sixth annual Duck Derby race which ran last weekend.

I think the first duck Derby I knew of was about ten years ago, and the premise is simple.  Buy a rubber duck for five dollars or so.  Throw all purchased ducks in a body of water like the Des Moines River.  The first duck that makes it to the finish line wins.

It's the best kind of charity event, like a 50/50 drawing or a lottery, in that it raises money,  because people think they have a chance of winning something.

Like Robert Frost said, "It's the lure of easy money.  It's got a very strong appeal".

So, it ends up looking something like this.


The local NBC station reported it raised $350,000 with 42,000 ducks purchased (I didn't buy one this year, but I have in the past).

You know all these years on LJ, and i never made a 'duck' tag.