Title: No Duff, No Duff, No Duff! Wait a minute! Was I just insulted?

Introduction
 
“No duff, no duff, no duff”.  Were you just called the Designated Ugly Fat Friend (DUFF)?    Absolutely not.  Were you just insulted as being inferior or worthless?  Not at all.  Has someone been offered a steamed pudding dessert containing dried fruit and has refused to eat it?  No.  Were you just invited to the Druid Underground Film Festival (DUFF)?  Sorry, you have not been invited or uninvited.  This obscure term may be familiar to some of you and unfamiliar to others, but could mean the difference between life and death.
 
During my emergency management career, I have often pondered the origins of the phrase “no duff, no duff, no duff”.  And being born and raised in Manitoba, Canada one might associate this term with Dufferin “Duff” Roblin.  Duff was the Manitoba Premier who was responsible for one of the most successful flood mitigation efforts on the planet; the Red River Floodway (aka Duff’s Ditch).  If “no duff” was not named after Duff Roblin where did this phrase come from?
 
Common Terminology
 
As a profession, we collectively understand the value of establishing and agreeing upon common terminology to support clear communications before, during, and after incidents.  But, yet not all of you will know what the term “no duff, no duff, no duff” means.  If you have lived within a commonwealth nation and have participated in an exercise you are likely to know this phrase.  Everyone else will be scratching their heads and thinking “What is this crazy canuck talking about?”.
 
If you are ever invited to participate in an exercise ask the organizer(s) what will happen if there is a “real” emergency.  Is this addressed in the exercise safety plan?  Why ask the safety controller or safety officer this question? It is important because there is always a possibility for a “real” emergency to occur during an exercise.  The exercise safety plan may use a code phrase like “no duff” to demark the difference between “exercise play” and a “real emergency”.  Whatever the safety plan is for the exercise it is important that all know about and understand that safety plan.
 
As an aside, in general, I suspect this is a challenge just based on the fact that the use of the term “exercise” is not universally used or understood.  The following is a list of terms that I recently discovered when reading through current literature and journal articles.  The reason for pointing this out is because there is no commonly agreed upon terminology for exercises themselves, let alone an obscure term like “no duff”.
 
●     Disaster Recovery (DR) test;
●     Discussion Exercise (DISCEX);
●     Drill;
●     Experiential learning, interprofessional training;
●     Field exercise (FSE);
●     Full-Scale Exercise (FSE), Live exercise, large-scale;
●     Functional;
●     Immersive simulations;
●     Live fire exercise;
●     Mock disaster or mock drill;
●     Practice;
●     Role-play or Role-based;
●     Run-through;
●     Scenario,
●     Simulation Based Experiences (SBEs);
●     Simulation Exercise (SIMEX);
●     Stress test;
●     Tabletop exercise (TTX);
●     Virtual;
●     Walk-Through; and
●     War Game.
 
The Duff Universe
 
Early in my research on the phrase “no duff” it became very clear and apparent that the word “duff” itself has an interesting history as well as an interning usage within our modern culture.  The topics include names, food, slang, geography, music, science, technology, literature, and fiction.  The following are highlights of what I have discovered to date:
 
Duff Names - There are many people, businesses, organizations, and even ships with the word “duff” in their name.  This includes surnames dating back hundreds of years in Scotland with origins in the Gaelic language.
 
Duff Food - The predominant English definition of “duff” is ‘A boiled or steamed pudding often containing dried fruit’.  Additionally, there is a Bahamian dessert by the same name, a Food Network personality named Duff Goldman, as well as many pubs named “Duffy’s Tavern” throughout the world.
 
Duff Slang - Depending on your location “duff” could mean stealing and altering a cattle brand (Australia) or you are gathering your mates to beat (or duff) someone up (British).  There are other uses in golf, baseball, drinking games, and chess.  Furthermore, there are several acronyms that use “D.U.F.F.”, such as the Designated Ugly Fat Friend.
 
Duff Geography - There are many features around the globe listed in the global gazetteer or geo-names database that have “duff” in the name, such as Duff, Saskatchewan or Duff, Tennessee.  The one location that stands out for me is Iron Duff, North Carolina because its name is a result of a clerical error (i.e. original name was to be Aaron Duff).
 
Duff Music - Consists of music or lyrics that are of very poor quality or are incorrect or false (e.g. “she played a couple of duff notes.”).  Otherwise, it is known as a large Persian and/or Arabic frame drum.
 
Duff Science & Technology - There are several uses of the term “duff” within science and technology.  Including the decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees (duff layer), a formylation reaction used in organic chemistry (duff reaction), as well as the discophora sondaica, a genus of butterflies commonly known as duffers.
 
Duff Literature & Fictions - There are many books, poems, cartoons, and radio shows with reference to a duff character or theme.  These include Shakespeare’s MacDuff, The Ghost of Mrs. Duff, Simpson’s Duff Man, Tiny Toons Elmyra Duff, and the Duffy’s Tavern Radio Show.
 
No Duff - So where did the term “no duff” came from?  Before the invention of radar the Royal Air Force (RAF) used radio tower triangulation to locate aircraft called directional finding (DF) or radio directional finding (RDF).  During an exercise when a real message was transmitted it would be predicated by the saying “NDF” or NoDF”.  Over time this transformed into “no duff” and has been adopted as meaning “indicates this is not a drill or training exercise”.  I would like to extend my thanks to Russell Boon for vlogging on this topic, which provided a starting point for my research.
 
Next Steps
 
What I ask of my emergency management colleagues is to ensure they have an exercise safety plan that addresses how a real emergency will be handled during their exercises.  And if you like the term “no duff” please use it. 
 
Ask
Additionally, if you are aware of a real “no duff” situation please let me know as I am building a list of examples to be included in a book I am writing on this topic.

Contact Information
Kenton Friesen, BA, BSc, CEM, CBCP, MBCI
Senior Business Continuity Coordinator, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI)
kenton.r.friesen@gmail.com