When I was a kid, I remember staring for hours in fascination at an amazing creation that belonged to the next-door neighbor: the dippy bird. That little guy would just keep dipping down into a cup of water, going slower and slower, then suddenly faster. It just wouldn’t stop! Amazing stuff for a four-year-old to see.

You’ve no doubt seen it, too. It’s a fascinating little piece of kitsch that is, at the same time, tacky and irresistible. Today’s site celebrates the dippy bird, aka the drinking duck or drinking bird.

And there is lots of info on the endlessly tippling little avian. For instance, did you know that the drinking bird first appeared about 1946, it is believed? In that year, a Miles B. Sullivan obtained patent protection for a drinking bird device. The Web site’s author asks for anyone who spotted one prior to that year to come forward and be recognized.

It also explains why the birds are largely just a memory. Most of us have seen them, but not recently, right? Well, it turns out that the brightly colored liquid inside (red, in the case of one I owned long ago) is poisonous and flammable! That fragile glass that holds this nasty substance in was easily broken, too. Hey, can you spell l-i-t-i-g-a-t-i-o-n?

[Read The Happy Drinking Bird]

Tags: drinking bird, dippy bird, drinking duck, miles b. sullivan, mercury poison, litigation