Statute of Frogs

I’ve been found again.  A friend came up behind me on the train yesterday and said “Are you the frog blogger?”  I’ve always known that there were enough clues floating around here that anyone who actually knows me can probably figure it out.  And this isn’t the first time it’s happened.  I’ve considered just posting under my real name, but I’d rather not have this page turn up as a top Google hit.  So I just plug along in my semi-anonymous state and every few months, another friend pops out of the woodwork.

I’m pretty fond of “the frog blogger,” though.

James Fallows at the Atlantic has collected a couple years of news stories related to the boiling frog myth. Thought my more frog-oriented readers¹ might want to know.

1. I’m as surprised as you are that there are any of these, but Google directs them here occasionally. [↩]

According to the weather report in this morning’s paper, we have several nice days in store. But on Wednesday, there’s a “chance of cain.” So be careful. Me, I’m hoping for a plague of frogs.

Having Google Ads on the blog doesn’t actually produce any revenue, but it sometimes takes one to interesting places. Particularly when Google’s algorithm choose to focus on the blog’s frogginess rather than its legalness. Just now, there was an ad for “Frogman Art,” which was an intriguing title, so I clicked it. It took me to the site of “Frogman Tim Cotterill” whose first paragraph reads:

Tim Cotterill, the FROGMAN known for his frog collectables, has an uncontrollable passion for frogs. And only frogs. He loves everything about those bulgy-eyed beauties — their faces, their webbed feet, their springy legs and their antic nature. He incorporates every possible expression, contour, and subtlety of these amphibians into his green-enameled bronzes.

Actually, his bronzes are pretty neat.

Given the number of people who get here searching for frog-related topics (recent examples include “frogs the basics,” “lovely frogs,” and “the national day of frogs”), I feel as though, when important frog news breaks, I should mention it. NPR ran a story on Saturday about a group of scientists and their quest to save frogs from a “killer fungus” that is threatening species worldwide. More information on their ambitious project is available at Amphibian Ark.