http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/watch/canard.htm Media Watch says Phillip Adams didn’t plagiarise. What Adams wrote (Weekend Australian Magazine, May 31, 2003):
“Jacques amused himself, and others, with automata that played the flute and the organ. And then there was his immensely successful copper duck. History records that the creature would peck away at food, apparently swallow it through a flexible neck and then, voila! excrete it onto a silver dish. First displayed in 1739, the duck was the toast of Paris. ‘Without the shitting duck,’ said Voltaire, ‘there would be nothing to remind us of the glory of France.’”
What Schuessler wrote (New York Review of Books, Feb 13, 2003):
“While he entertained audiences with automata that played the flute and the organ, his most celebrated invention was a copper duck that realistically ‘gulped’ food through a flexible neck and then excreted it on a silver platter. First displayed in 1739, the duck caused a sensation. ‘Without the shitting duck,’ Voltaire quipped, ‘there would be nothing to remind us of the glory of France.’”
“Didn’t make the grade”? Huh? (Parallels spotted by Professor Bunyip.) 16:35
