…more political humor.

Some of the blue ducks from the Great British Duck Race came to join the Digiducks. They took a liking to HiYa’s stories. “…and remember, little grasshopppers, it’s better to be a big duck in a little puddle than to be a little duck in a big puddle.”

See more fantastic pictures of the race taken by Mairead Bushe here.

Yesterday 250,000 blue rubber ducks were released into the Thames River to race for UK charities including WaterAid, The Down’s Syndrome Association and NSPCC. A new World Record was set for the most rubber ducks raced together beating last year’s record of 165,000-also set on the Thames River.

The blue racing ducks were a striking color change from the traditional yellow ducks that are normally raced. The blue ducks were certainly attention-grabbing, but that was not the sole reason the blue colored ducks were chosen for the race. Apparently people were throwing their own uinofficial yellow ducks into the race last year!

The ducks were 2 pounds each, with the owner of the winning duck getting 10,000 pounds. Last year over 100,000 pounds were raised for charities. I can only imagine how many ducks will be raced next year, and what color rubber ducks will race down the Thames River.

(N’ton on the left and Vegas Baby on the right.)

A couple of years ago hundreds of these small ducks with red neckties were mailed to people on every corner of the globe. Recipients of the ducks were to photograph their duck in their location in a unique and interesting way. Then the photos were to be posted on a flickr (a photo sharing site)group called “The Duck Project.” The goal of this project was to get a duck to someone in every city of every country on the globe.

I was intrigued by this project and asked to have one sent to me in Las Vegas (where I was living at the time). A week later, a little duck with a red necktie was sitting in my mailbox in a brown envelope. I opened the envelope and out came a duck…flatter than a pancake! I thought that the duck had melted because it was August and we were having temperatures over 100 degrees! I immediately put it into a cold bath to try to get it to pop back into shape. It remained flat, so I poked a little hole in the bottom of the duck and blew some air into it. Soon, after a combination of the material cooling down and me giving it “rubber duckie CPR” the little duck popped back to shape. Whew! That was a relief!

Next, I needed a name for my duck. Being a representative of Las Vegas, I decided to name it Vegas Baby. Then I took pictures of Vegas Baby living the Vegas lifestyle. Some people in Vegas go to casinos to gamble. Never interested in gambling, I went to take pictures of Vegas Baby while trying not to get kicked out of casinos for taking pictures inside them. I also wrote my phone number on the bottom of the duck in case I lost it. I had become somewhat attached to it for all the entertainment it had provided me!

Now, two years later I have relocated to NYC. Vegas Baby doesn’t get too many photo ops these days, but I do still visit Vegas and take the duck with me when I go for pictures for old times sake. I also take Vegas Baby to any place that has a casino for fun pictures.

Just last week a flickr friend of mine from France came to NYC for a business trip and also had one of the many Duck Project ducks! We met up for the first time in person. She had her duck with her and we got pictures of both of the ducks together. She named her duck N’ton-a shortened nickname for rubber duck in French. She has taken many pictures of N’ton, as well. It was like a little reunion. And I met a wonderful friend because of the duck!