It's a Quackerific Day 🦆
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Season 2: Episode 57 Description
In today's episode: 🦆 It's National Rubber Ducky Day! 🤣 We're quacking jokes with show host Bethany Van Delft and celebrating National Rubber Duck Day. Correspondent Ryan Nerz explains why we celebrate these yellow toys on January 13th and how long rubber ducks have made us smile. 🗞️ In the news: NYC voting change and the 2022 Girl of the Year. 🛁 And, test your rubber ducky knowledge on today's Trivia on the Ten.✅
Sources:
9 Unsinkable rubber duckie facts | Explore | Awesome Activities & Fun Facts | CBC Kids
Follow the Friendly Floatees | National Geographic Society
Rubber Duck (sculpture) - Wikipedia
Going quackers at the palace | UK news | The Guardian
Watershed moment in NYC: New law allows noncitizens to vote | AP News
Genevieve Beacom becomes first woman to pitch in the Australian Baseball League - CNN
American Girl's first Chinese American doll of the year aims to combat AAPI hate : NPR
Meet the woman with the world’s largest rubber duck collection (today.com)
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:02
What do you get when you put a bunch of rubber ducks in a box? A box of quackers. Ah, that's right. We're quacking jokes for National Rubber Duck Day. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Thursday, January 13th. And this is the Ten News.
Various Voices 0:21
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:29
Why do we celebrate Rubber Ducky Day today of all days? Well, according to a 1973 Sesame Street calendar, Ernie's rubber ducky was born on January 13th. Oh, Happy Birthday little, ducky. So when you're celebrating in the bathtub today with your own rubber ducky, why not sing along to Ernie's hit song, Rubber Ducky? Here to tell us more about this quack-irrific day is Ten News correspondent, Ryan Nerz.
Ryan Nerz 1:02
Aside from soap and shampoo, there's an item that has nothing to do with cleaning. And yet, it could be found in the bathtubs of millions of kids for many decades now. Can't figure it out? It sounds a bit like Oh, my excuse me. I mean, it sounds a bit like That's right. I'm talking about the rubber ducky. And I'm talking about it because it's her big day today. So hey, happy rubber duck or day. Wait, what I mean to say is happy rubber ducky day. Now, to properly celebrate this day, which full disclosure doubles as my birthday, I'm going to give you a quick and quacky history of the rubber ducky, which is quite frankly, way more interesting than it has any right to be. Okay, let's start at the beginning. As for ducks, well, they've been around for about 25 million years. And as for rubber. Well, indigenous South American tribes have been making that for several 1000 years. But our magic moment began in the mid-1800s. When Charles Goodyear he of Goodyear tires fame, figured out how to vulcanize or harden rubber using feet and sulfur. That's when the production of things like animal toys began. And maybe since vulcanized rubber was waterproof, the rubber duck quickly broke away from the pack. Fun fact about these 19th-century rubber duckies most of them didn't even float. They were so heavy, they just sank. But then that didn't matter much because these early ducks weren't meant for the bathroom. They were sold as chew toys, not just for babies, but for dogs too. It wasn't until the 1930s that the rubber ducks association with bathtime really began and the company that gave these birdie bath floater toys their big start. Why Disney Of course, boy. In 1933, a lay tech supplier licensed a series of Disney characters to make inexpensive bath floaters. The most popular by far were Donald and Donna duck, who was later renamed, Daisy. But the rubber ducky still didn't really hit the big time. Not until World War Two. Rubber was rationed for war supplies. So a sculptor named Peter Gani filed a patent in 1947 to make them out of vinyl. His design, the one with the yellow body, the big eyes, and the orange bill is the one that we have all come to know and love. During the 14 years of his patent, Gani sold over 15 million duckies. This brings us to another fun fact, the duckies of our generation aren't even rubber. But I guess final duckie doesn't have much of a ring to it doesn't. Anyway, with over 50 million duckies sold just as we didn't think she could get any bigger. In 1970, a guy named Ernie came up with a hit song, an ode to his favorite maritime companion
Sound Bit 4:22
Rubber ducky, you're the one you will make bathtime not so fun. Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you.
Ryan Nerz 4:33
Bo, bo, bo-de-oh. So, catchy. And this was a decade before Elmo even existed when Ernie was Sesame Street's biggest star, the world's most famous puppet. The song about his bathtub buddy was such a smash hit that it sold over a million copies and went all the way to number 11 on the Billboard charts. That's incredible. This had to be it, the absolute pinnacle of fame for this humble yellow bird that we should know by now to never, ever underestimate the rubber ducky. In 1992, in the midst of a raging storm, a cargo ship carrying tons of toys tipped over, emptying nearly 30,000 rubber ducks into the Pacific Ocean. bobbing along on the currents, these duckies spent months and years traveling the world's biggest bathtub. By 2007, they have washed ashore in Australia, Indonesia, the United States, South America, and even the Arctic. Not only did this spread the ducky legend far and wide, but their journeys actually told oceanographers crucial information about waves, currents, and seasonal changes. Cool. That very same year 2007, an artist in Holland became inspired by these little squeaky globetrotters. And he thought to himself, why not make them bigger. And with that, the Dutch artist Florentine Hoffman created the world's largest rubber ducky made of inflatable rubber and stood a whopping 52 feet high. Over the next six years, Hoffman took the ducky to Sydney, South Paulo, Amsterdam, and finally Hong Kong, where the exhausted mega duck fell over and promptly deflated. In the end, the rubber ducky may occasionally get deflated, but it will never, ever be defeated. She's had a hit song and traveled the world from bathtubs to the shores of seven continents. She squeaked and squirted in millions of bathrooms for millions of giggling kids. And in 2013, she finally got her rightful position in the national ploy Hall of Fame. I salute rubber duckie for all that you've achieved, and all that awaits happy rubber ducky Day to you. And to all your many floating the squirting squeaking, rubber ducky friends.
Bethany Van Delft 7:02
Now, let's see what else is going on. In a big win for immigrants, a new law into effect in New York City that allows residents who are not American citizens to vote in local elections. That's a big deal. New York is the first major city to pass such a law, which allows more people to participate in the democratic process. 17-year-old Genevieve Beacom made history last week when she became the first woman to pitch in a game in the Australian baseball league. Genevieve pitched a scoreless inning and did not allow any hits and her appearance for the Melbourne Aces. You go girl. It's a big first for the American Girl Doll Company, it's named Corinne Tan as it's 2022 Girl of the Year. Corinne is the first Chinese American to receive that title. Corinne is from Colorado and loves to ski. She's part of a larger effort of the American Girl company to support anti-racism organizations and highlight Asian Americans. The company recently partnered with AAPI youth rising, a student-led nonprofit nice.
What's that over there? I think it's a...
Various Voices 8:30
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 8:33
Trivia on the Ten. Rubber ducks are fun to collect. They come in all shapes and sizes and have different characters. But, just how many ducks would you need to break the world record for the largest rubber duck collection? Is it a) 500? b) 3,000 or c) 9,000? Did you guess it? The answer is C. Dr. Charlotte Lee holds the Guinness world record for largest rubber duck collection she has 9,000. Wow. Dr. Lee started collecting rubber ducks over 20 years ago. Her collection includes rare and vintage ducks and takes up a whole room in her house. That's one way to make a splash. Time's up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is collecting rubber ducky's and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Adam Barnard, Tessa Flannery, and Nathalie Alonso. Ryan Nerz contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to the Ten News. Every day when I make my way to the Tubby, I find a little fella who's cute and yella and chubby, rubba-dub-dubby.
