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October 12, 2004

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As I watched the ducks at the Aqua Caliente park, I noticed that a lot of the male ducks would sit up, like this one here, and display a show of their own self magnificence. Like us humans, many animals in nature will put on some sort of impressive display for the attention of a potential mate. 

While watching them, I began to notice a pattern in their behavior, just prior to this display. It enabled me to keep an eye out for some of the ducks in hopes that I could catch one in the act. And so I did and caught this one here.

But as I saved the image and decided to post it, I couldn't figure out the one proper word in my vocabulary to describe this behavior. Yeah, many words came to mind. Words like "pompous", "showy", "pretentious". But nothing seemed to grab my satisfaction until I looked in the thesaurus and came up with the word "Grandiloquence". However, I do hate to use big words, just to try to "show off". It just seems so "pretentious".

But ironically enough, the Webster's definition states:
Gran-dil-o-quence, Bombastic or lofty discourse; -or-
high-sounding words.