Monday, February 12, 2007

Wikipedia quacks me up! (Sorry.)

One of my innocent workplace passtimes is to browse Wikipedia. It's not completely accurate, especially if the entry is political in nature, but you can find lots of interesting stuff out. Their main page has a daily featured article as well as what's happening in the world and historical events from each date. Usually something (or several things) catch my eye and I can hop from subject to subject finding out little bits of stuff here and there. Cheap infotainment.
This morning's featured entry was on 'Make Way for Ducklings'. This is one of the FP Gal's favorites and she tells a charming anecdote about little drunk ducks. I clicked on it eagerly and...wow. Go on over and read it, especially the Critical Reaction. I'm not sure which is my favorite sentence. This one:
More recent critics have stated that the illustrations cause the strength of the plot to suffer.
Or this one:
Critics also find the characterization of the waterfowl lacking, that is, the Mallards represent "rather stereotypically concerned parents," often showing the same facial expressions and rarely showing expressiveness.
Keep in mind that this is a book meant for pre-schoolers. A book that concerns a family of ducks trying to find a safe spot in Boston. It's a shame that the author didn't put more work into the ducks facial expressions.
Wow. Just, wow.

2 comments:

Sarita said...

Okay, let's get this straight:
The ducklings in the story weren't drunk, just the actual ducks they were modeled after. McCloskey bought a bunch of ducklings and put them in his bathtub. They wouldn't stay still enough for him to draw them, so he got them drunk.

What kind of terrible stories do you think I am sharing with the yout of today?!

DD4 said...

Sarah,

"What is a yout? Did you say yout?" (lines from one of my favorite movies. Can you guess which one?)