FREE-RANGE DUCK

As The Times boomerangs ever further back to its oh-so-Republican roots, the reasons behind the Letters duck become more obvious. Even Calendar is lurching to the right.

Oh, you can deny it, but the duck is clearly a subtle but unmistakable reference to California’s painfully Republican insurance commissioner--Chuck Quackenbush.

P.S. I am a staff attorney for the Proposition 103 Enforcement Project, which tries to keep an eye on Mr. Q’s doings.

DAVID LINK

Los Angeles

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To readers wondering why the duck logo:

I imagine it stands for the “web”-footers among your readers who use e-mail, and the pencil for those who still write by hand. Or is this a quack theory?

DORIS SILVERTON

Encino

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Dear Calendar Duck:

On behalf of your cousins in Orlando, Fla., the world-famous Peabody marching ducks, I am writing to congratulate you. Duck power is growing, and it’s great to see a fellow duck 3,000 miles away getting into the Los Angeles Times.

My four colleagues and I march twice a day at the hotel, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. We play to an adoring audience and provide hundreds of thousands of “Kodak moments.”

J.J. MALLARD, Drake

The Peabody Orlando Mascot