Mark & The Norwegians

A Christmas gift from Elizabeth's parents came to us--a small wooden carved duck wearing a bright yellow rain jacket and rain hat. For some reason it struck me as particularly funny, and I christened it the duck of stupidity to be given as an award for particularly meritorious (and notable) acts of dumbness. Needless to say everyone has had a chance to have the duck on their desk, dresser, etc.



The only rule seems to be that to unload the duck on someone else, they have to have done something equally un-smart. Elizabeth is our favorite for repetition--leaving bags of groceries at the shoppette seems to be her specialty. We have had the infamous occasion of a rubber dishwashing glove being sucked up into the vacuum hose (over 20 foot-long hose for a central vacuum system). Regrettably repeated several weeks later with a cloth napkin--we've never seen the napkin again. Even I have had the duck once or twice--my most memorable being the sink stopper adjustment which required me to take the entire sink plumbing apart at 0600 in the morning.

But my all-time favorite happened last night at a viola concert we were at in Stavanger, and it involved Sammie J's pants. Imagine a bored young man after 45 minutes of 10 x violas in concert--with nothing particular to do. Imagine he has zipper pockets on the outside of his pants, each with a small nylon cord attached to the zipper in a loop. Further imagine restless hands fidgeting--and managing to tie the two cords from the outside of opposite legs together across his lap. Imagine the consternation as he realizes he has knotted the cords together so thoroughly he can't get them undone. Think on the near-hysterics of the mom sitting next to Samuel, and the efforts not to bust out laughing in the middle of the concert. Now watch the nail clippers come out after 10 minutes of fruitless un-knotting attempts. Yes, Samuel is the only one in our family who literally had to be cut free from his own pants. T'was a moment for duck history.