{"id":2015,"date":"2019-08-13T02:01:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T02:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lowlifejournalism.com\/?p=2015"},"modified":"2026-05-12T19:51:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:51:01","slug":"josh-paxton-and-the-duck-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/?p=2015","title":{"rendered":"Josh Paxton &#038; the Duck Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"967\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2-967x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2847\" srcset=\"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2-967x1024.jpg 967w, https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2-283x300.jpg 283w, https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2-768x813.jpg 768w, https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2-1451x1536.jpg 1451w, https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/josh2.jpg 1511w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>\u201c&#8230; She was wearing a giant, floppy, checkered hat, and some sort of body suit with a cape. And walking behind her was\u2014drumroll please\u2014a duck.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Josh Paxton (musician)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JP: <\/strong>It was the summer of 1994 and I had just moved to town. I knew nothing and no one. But I had figured out enough to get an OffBeat and find the music listings, and I decided to catch the band playing at Caf\u00e9 Brasil. Now here\u2019s how clueless I was: when I saw that the listing said the band started at 8, I figured that meant I should probably get there about 7. Did I mention, clueless?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I got there about 7, and naturally the place was deserted except for me and the bartender\u2026 that is, until this odd-looking, elderly woman walked in. She was wearing a giant, floppy, checkered hat, and some sort of body suit with a cape. And walking behind her was<strong>\u2014<\/strong>drumroll please<strong>\u2014<\/strong>a duck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She ignored me and climbed up onto a barstool with some effort, ordered a drink, and nursed it while the duck walked around and shat on the floor. Then she paid her tab and left. After she was gone I turned to the bartender as she wiped up the duck shit from the floor, and said, \u201cOkay, is it just because I\u2019m new in town, or was that a little strange?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the bartender looked up and, with a completely straight face, said something whose Zen-like wisdom I would come to understand soon enough. \u201cThat was strange,\u201d she said. \u201cShe usually goes to the bar across the street.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn\u2019t until a year or so later that I would learn about the legend of Ruthie the Duck Girl, and how lucky I would be considered to have had a drink next to (if not exactly with) her on my first night out in town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c&#8230; She was wearing a giant, floppy, checkered hat, and some sort of body suit with a cape. And walking behind her was\u2014drumroll please\u2014a duck.\u201d &#8211; Josh Paxton (musician)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-interviews","category-interviews","category-quick-reads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2015"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchmennotes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}