Even giant inflatable ducks need a break

My mancrush favorite artist working the medium of inflatable ducks, Florentijn Hofman, has brought his giant inflatable duck to Hong Kong harbor, a place that is also special to me. Apparently many welcomed their new rubber duckie overlord.

Pretty much the usual crowd (apart from the duck) at Harbour City!

The 54 foot high duck brought its usual brand of whimsy and good will to the people of Hong Kong, but apparently caused some alarm when a scheduled maintenance deflation caused some concern to duck viewers. Quoth the BBC,

The giant bird, … was found lying on its side on Tuesday night and was completely flat by Wednesday, reports say.

The Wall Street Journal gets extra points for making a hedcut of the duck and quotes a source close to the collapsed canard:

Harbour City said the duck was being deflated for a routine inspection and repairs after exposure to heavy waves in the harbor.

The photos of the deflation are too much to bear posting here so I’ll let you click through above if you must. If this is anything other than scheduled maintenance, to the duck deflators I say: you’ll take away my inflatable duck when you dredge it from the cold dead harbor floor. The duck lives on inside of everybody who’s ever seen it, even just in pictures.

Pop over to Clover for a popover

According to the Hobbits, second breakfast is the second most important meal of the day so when I found myself in Dewey Square one morning this week, it seemed only natural to get a food truck breakfast even though I had already eaten. I was tempted by Area Four’s breakfast sandwich, but it seemed on the heavy side for a second breakfast, so I returned to Clover for one of their massive popovers.

Clover Popover

A popover, for those unfamiliar, is a hollow muffinesque confection of egg batter. The name seems to have something to do with the gusto with which a popover overflows its muffin tin. At $2, it’s a nicely affordable (and surprisingly filling for being hollow) inflatable comfort food.

The Multitude of Mites on Mimolette

I had the strangest dream this weekend: I dreamed that people were hoarding precious balls of bright orange cheese. When I woke up this was on the radio: The FDA is cracking down on Mimolette, a wonderful cheddaresque French cheese. Mais pourquoi? Cheese Mites, that’s quoi. All you wusses better hold on to your hand sanitizer, because here’s a newsflash for you: cheese is alive. Yep, like beer and wine, bread and yogurt, there are tiny critters in there making cheese what it is. The FDA says there are too many such critters on Mimolette, so here in the USA, at least for now, we are at a Mimoloss. You know I’m all about the local cheese, but this is a cheesy way to win a trade war. I recommend you write your congressperson, or, if you’re close enough to the border, head up to Canada and buy yourself a Mimolot of mitey cheese.