Ducks and Me

"You sure do like ducks," asserted my wife.

I was not ready for this particular string of apparently random words.  What the devil was she saying?

"What?" I wittily replied.  But I wondered, hopefully, "Is this some special meal idea?"

"Cartoon ducks!  I've noticed you seem to really like every cartoon duck there is!  Uncle Scrooge, Darkwing Duck...."

"Hold it right there!  Those guys are both from the same Duck-Filled Universe!  Just because I like the whole Uncle Scrooge world, I hardly think I should be pigeon-holed as somehow being overly fond of ducks."

"So which ducks can't I count?"

"Well, let's see...  Donald, Daisy, Huey, Duey, and Louie, Gladstone Gander, Ludwig von Drake..."

"And they all count as one duck?  Okay, okay..."  She looked about the room for some hint that might betray another guarded passion.  Then she saw the poster.   "What about Howard the Duck?"

I bristled.  "Well...  That's still not quite fair...  Howard began as something of a parody of Donald Duck..."  (I chose not to mention the underground Howard the Duck spin-off, Destroyer Duck, which I also like.)

She looked right at me.  "Daffy Duck."

"Well, he's hilarious!  Who DOESN'T think Daffy Duck is funny?!  If you're going to play this dirty, forget it!"

I hated to cut her off like that, especially because it made her think she really was on to something, and I was secretly a fan of even more hilarious, hilarious duck cartoons.  As if!