Can’t be much fun being a lame duck

From Washington we’ve been hearing the expression “lame duck” quite a bit lately, but it has not of course been a discussion about the health of the waterfowl population in the American capital but a reference to Joe Biden as he completes his final term as president.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary lame duck refers to someone “continuing in a post, but with little power, influence or enthusiasm.” The expression apparently dates back to the 18th century and became a familiar term at the London Stock Exchange regarding unsuccessful stockbrokers who couldn’t pay their debts.
People may well ask why it was ducks and not other birds which were unfortunate enough to be landed with the “lame” tag. After all it’s hardly positive PR for the common duck. You only have to look at a duck and the word “lame” springs to mind. The alternatives are not very appealing, however. A “hamstrung heron.”,. “pickled parrot”, “plastered partridge” or “incapacitated ostrich” don’t quite create the required image in the same way as the poor old duck.
One explanation is that ducks were traditionally a popular target for hunting expeditions in which some of them were shot but not necessarily killed, which left them lame. Unfortunately in this unforgiving world the lame ducks then became “sitting ducks” and ultimately “dead ducks.” And after that it was only a matter of time before they were sitting on the dining table as “duck l’orange”.
Duck featured in a famous Fawlty Towers episode “Gourmet Night” in which Basil (John Cleese) attempts to introduce haute cuisine to attract a better class of clientele, or as he so eloquently puts it, “no riff-raff”. Unfortunately his dreams of gourmet bliss are thwarted by a drunken chef. At one stage we are even treated to the unforgettable sight of Basil impersonating a duck.
Eventually Basil informs guests they are limited to a choice of Duck With Orange, Duck With Cherries or the intriguing Duck Surprise which turns out to be duck without orange or cherries. It will come as no surprise the gourmet night was not a success.
Howzat!
It is not only in politics that the English language is unkind to ducks. In sport it’s a word no cricketer wants to hear. When someone is out for a duck it means they were dismissed without scoring a run. Even worse is a “golden duck” when you are out first ball. I regrettably know all about this, having suffered that fate too many times.
For the curious, cricketers originally called nought a “duck” because a duck’s egg is a very similar shape to the number zero.
I didn’t realise this year marked the 100th anniversary of the George Gershwin classic Rhapsody in Blue until I read John Clewley’s informative column in Life (19/11). It was one of the first albums I bought as a teenager in the early 1960s. My mum was delighted as she was getting weary of the early Elvis hits and the rest of the rock and roll “racket” I was listening to on the radio.
It wasn’t long before I purchased the Porgy and Bess album by the magnificent jazz trumpeter Miles Davis with the Gil Evans orchestra. I remember the first time I played it to my dad he grudgingly admitted it was “an improvement on the usual stuff” I listened to although he wasn’t keen on the ” trumpeter’s squeaky bits”.
I still play the album on a regular basis. It includes wonderful interpretations of Summertime, It Ain’t Necessarily So and I Loves You Porgy.
I should explain my reference to Elvis. Back in 1956 when I had already been packed off to bed, my older brother Eric was downstairs in the kitchen tuning in to Radio Luxembourg and the amazing sounds of Heartbreak Hotel and Don’t be Cruel came thundering up the stairs. I had never heard anything like it. Later there was Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock. It was raw, unrestrained and so different to the fluff I had been brought up on.
Alas, a few years later I was sorry to see Elvis opting for the Hollywood movie route and sadly many of his songs became as bland as his films. He was a good guy though.
You may recall that earlier this month Collins Dictionary announced “brat” as its word of the year, a not particularly appealing offering I might say.
Now Cambridge Dictionary have come up with their own word which they say was looked up nearly 130,000 times this year on their website. The word is “manifest” which Cambridge defines as “to use methods such as visualisation and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that in doing so will make it more likely to happen.”
Sounds like a long-winded way of saying “hope for the best”.
One of the Cambridge runner-up words for 2024 was “ecotarian” which apparently means a “person who only eats food produced or prepared in a way that does not harm the environment.” That sounds like someone who could become an incredibly boring guest at a dinner party.
Anyway, having just polished off a plate of bacon and eggs I suspect that rules out any claims I might have to being a budding “ecotarian.”