African Clawed Frogsarereallycool. I lurve frogs. I dig them. I have an African Clawed Frog that kicks my motherluvin' ass. He broke my face. I call him Samuel L. Jackson. I think that the human race should be kinder to frogs.
Interesting wee creatures, frogs. Their breathing seems so dramatic as they gulp air.
The local frog chorus is back now. Frogs are in trouble in many places, but hereabouts we we still get a nightly symphony.
The 'escape stories' section from that first link is hilarious (if you like breathless descriptions of fairly mundane events, told by people who name frogs things like Abdul and Lola).
I once had an african clawed frog named Mr. Frog (I am not creative). He was a good frog. He never attempted suicide. He died of renal failure, which, in a frog with semipermeable membranes, means he swelled up and internally asploded.
There's nooooo froggies
Like clawed froggies, like no froggies I knooooow!
* wriggly frog dance, with top hat *
I once had a treefrog named Fred. We used to watch Night of the Living Dead together. No kidding, he'd stop hopping around and sit transfixed in front of the TV whenever I put that movie in (which was frequently).
mcs.... that may be the strangest thing I've heard in weeks! :)
oh wow...that "mcs" should have been mct...but you know it IS easy to think "middle clas stool" when you read that... :-\
spinning round the spotlit stage
we see her sail
our Miss Hopkin
with her top hat
and clawed feet
and tails
The only song I know about frogs. It also includes other amphibians.
I know a frog song...it goes a little something like this;
Grigit grigit griget
Do deep!
Urt urt urt do-deep!
Griget grigit griget
(Chorus)
Do deep! (grik)
Do deep! (grik)
Do deep! (urt!)
(repeat 1st verse and chorus X infinity)
Brek-ek-ek!
the classical frog
hoots and hollers
from his bog.
There are lots of songs about frogs - Bein' Green, Carribean Amphibean...okay, most of them are sung by Kermit the Frog, but they still count.
Oh oh...i know a froggy song too:
A Frog he would a wooing go,
Heigh-ho, says Roley,
A Frog he would a-wooing go,
Whether this mother would let him or no,
With a Roley, Poley, Gammon and Spinach,
Heigh-ho says Anthony Roley.
...whether this mother would let him or no...
Heh!
/takes gander at Mother Goose
The Frog
Mr. Anon Ymous
What a wonderful bird the frog are!
When he stand he sit almost;
When he hop he fly almost.
He ain't got no sense hardly;
He ain't got no tail hardly either.
When he sit, he sit on what he ain't got almost.
Wait, I've got to share these frog proverbs:
"Never try to catch two frogs with one hand."
- Chinese Proverb
"Where there are no swamps there are no frogs."
- German Proverb
"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."
- Native American Proverb
"When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him."
- Hindu Proverb
"The frog likes water, but not boiling water."
- Senegalese Proverb
The frog school
and the skylark school --
disputing how to sing..-- Shiki
I used to remove eggs from Xenopus (the clawed frogs). Heck, my user name comes from the label on the bucket we used to transport the frogs.
After a few egg removals the froggy girls started to look a bit like Frankenstein on the underside... little spots with stitches here and there. Gut stitches would have rotted off too quickly in the water, so we had to use nylon to hold the incisions closed, and remove the old stitches the next time we used that frog for eggs.
They ate chopped liver, and were quite not-so-entertaining. The mutant frogs at the frog farm though, hey now those guys were loads of fun. There were some tadpoles that never metamorphosed, these big twisted 5 to 10 year old tadpoles that just never turned into frogs. There were spotted ones due to weird color combinations, some completely white, some with black or even orange spots. A few that darn near looked calico. There were occasional ones with extra limbs, and once I saw a perfect little six-legged froggy. Usually the ones with extra hind limbs had small deformed ones, or limbs that were partially fused, but this guy had two complete and fully functional sets of hind limbs. It was fun to watch it swim.
I think most of the mutants were sent to a zoo in Toledo. I'm not exactly sure.
Oddly enough, one of the sites in the FPP linked to the same frog farm I used to get our frogs from.
Somehow, that makes a funny combination of words, especially when you say it seven or eight times:
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Frog Farm
Hey!
MonkeyFilter: I think most of the mutants were sent to a zoo in Toledo.
CLF: WHY does that seem so applicable here?
a stirring
night --
riot of
frog song
rackets
our valley
closer to
summer
That's weird. I went out with a guy named Claude Forgues.
we need a Yak thread.
Oh...i remembered another Froggy song.
Twenty froggies went to school, down beside a rushy pool,
Twenty little coats of green, twenty vests all white and clean.
"We must be in time", said they; "First we study, then we play;
That is how we keep the rule, when we froggies go to school."
Master bull-frog, brave and stern,
Called his classes in their turn.
Taught them how to nobly strive,
Also how to leap and dive.
Taught them how to dodge a blow,
From the sticks that bad boys throw.
Twenty froggies grew up fast,
Bull-frogs they became at last.
Now they sit on other logs,
Teaching other little frogs...
MCT: Awwwwwww, that's cute. I'll have to teach that to the grandsquiddles.
Just fer you, Pete_best!
THE MAD YAK
Corso
I am watching them churn the last milk they'll ever get from me.
They are waiting for me to die;
They want to make buttons out of my bones.
Where are my sisters and brothers?
That tall monk there, loading my uncle, he has a new cap.
And that idiot student of his -- I never saw that muffler before.
Poor uncle, he lets them load him.
How sad he is, how tired!
I wonder what they'll do with his bones?
And that beautiful tail!
How many shoelaces will they make of that!
Of course, all of this is Gnu to you:
Good Gnus
(A Vignette in Verse)
-- P. G. Wodehouse.
When cares attack and life seems black,
How sweet it is to pot a yak,
Or puncture hares and grizzly bears,
And others I could mention;
But in my Animals "Who's Who"
No name stands higher than the Gnu;
And each new gnu that comes in view
Receives my prompt attention.
When Afric's sun is sinking low,
And shadows wander to and fro,
And everywhere there's in the air
A hush that's deep and solemn;
Then is the time good men and true
With View Halloo pursue the gnu;
(The safest spot to put your shot
is through the spinal column).
To take the creature by surprise
We must adopt some rude disguise,
Although deceit is never sweet,
And falsehoods don't attract us;
So, as with gun in hand you wait,
Remember to impersonate
A tuft of grass, a mountain-pass,
A kopje or a cactus.
A brief suspense, and then at last
The waiting's o'er, the vigil past;
A careful aim. A spurt of flame.
It's done. You've pulled the trigger,
And one more gnu, so fair and frail,
Has handed in its dinner-pail;
(The females all are rather small,
The males are somewhat bigger).
on a happier note:
The Yak
-- Hillaire Belloc
As a friend to the children
commend me the Yak.
You will find it exactly the thing:
It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,
Or lead it about with a string.
The Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet
(A desolate region of snow)
Has for centuries made it a nursery pet,
And surely the Tartar should know!
Then tell you papa where the Yak can be got,
And if he is awfully rich
He will buy you the creature --
or else
he will not.
(I cannot be positive which.)
I'm all yaked out now.
Toodles
Dang, this was the froggy post
OK on track:
The froggy chorus--excerpt
Andrew Patterson
The chorus frogs in the big lagoon
Would sing their songs to the silvery moon.
Tenor singers were out of place,
For every frog was a double bass.
But never a human chorus yet
Could beat the accurate time they set.
The solo singer began the joke;
He sang, "As long as I live I'll croak,
Croak, I'll croak,"
And the chorus followed him: "Croak, croak, croak!"
-- Shiki