"Where do the ducks go?" - At Last, External Evidence!

A central aspect which has puzzled people both inside and outside the novel for 50 years is Holden's question where the ducks go when the lagoon in Central Park freezes over.    The first cab driver Holden asks in chapter 9 thinks Holden is trying to kid him. Then, in chapter 12, Holden has this famous and very funny conversation with Horwitz, the second cabbie. Horwitz hasn't got a clue where the ducks go and gets incredibly excited about the question, also comparing the ducks' situation to that of the fish in the lagoon. In fact, he gets so sore that he drives off "like a bat out of hell". (Rumour has it that he is so unnerved that he actually ( drives into lampost.)    Alas, Holden himself never finds out where the ducks go (or does he, years later? ;-)  . However, exactly 50 years after the publication of CR there is, at last, the answer to this mind-boggling question. It was published in the New York Times on July 22, 2001 by Thomas Beller. In his article, "Holden's New York", we learn (I paraphrase):

The park commissioner said that every year his office is contacted by people inquiring about a mystery posed by Holden: What happens to the ducks when the lagoon freezes over?    According to the commissioner, the lagoon does not really freeze anymore. "Usually the ducks go to the middle of the lake, which is the least likely to freeze," he said. "If that freezes over they have been seen in the Hudson and East Rivers. In fact ducks travel much less than they used to, because it is really much easier for them than it was in 1951.

So what?     Well, the point is: Horwitz was (basically) right: Mother Nature takes care of the fish - and the ducks, too. Holden cares about the ducks because he cares about  (from his point of view) helpless, innocent creatures who he feels should be protected from the brutal world. That goes for the ducks (can you imagine Ackley or Stradlater asking themselves where the ducks go? - Me neither!), it goes for the nuns, for Jane Gallagher, and of course for his sister Phoebe. Therefore, just like Holden eventually realizes in the carrousel scene that he has to allow Phoebe to make the experience of possibly falling off the horse or the carrousel (of life) - see my #18 Internal Aspects - he should not worry too much about the ducks...