Thing To Do Today Perhaps: duck!

Watch out!

photo by Barry Skeates

Branches, startled pigeons, ancient door frames, they're all out to get you, but it's the signs for LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT that worry me most. I understand the need to keep an eye out for rogue planes (though having an eye out would probably be the least of my worries) but I don't think there'd really be that much I could do if I got buzzed by a jumbo jet.

Never mind, there are other sorts of duck to consider.

You can make a duck by being out at cricket without scoring (your score, 0, is the shape of a duck's egg. Mind you, it's also the shape of an eagle's egg, but then another sport has nabbed eagle).

You can also make duck with orange, cranberry, or black bean sauce.

If you're playing ducks and drakes then you're skimming a stone across water to make it bounce, and if you're making ducks and drakes you're wasting time or resources.

If anyone in England tells you to be a duck then they're asking you to be kind and helpful, as in be a duck and put the kettle on.

If anyone asks you to drive a duck they're either asking you to chivvy a bird towards a hunter or steer a World War II vehicle.

If you have a ducking then you're completely under water. A duck won't mind, but in olden times a scold (a nagging woman) would have found  things a lot more serious:

If you're in Australia or New Zealand then a bit of duck-shoving will be no problem because that means avoiding some duty. If you're in America then duck soup is even less trouble because it means something that's easy to do.

Like ducking.

What out!

J2F-4 Grumman Duck biplane.

Thing To Do Today: duck. This word for the bird comes from the Old English dūce, which means duck or diver.