Althouse: Toad of the morning.

May 29, 2023

Toad of the morning.

40 comments:

rhhardin said...: If you have not seen Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988) I recommend it. Highlight is the cane toad scientist who took personally the loss of his cat.; 5/29/23, 8:22 AM
Kate said...: Top o' the morning toad to you, too!; 5/29/23, 8:26 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: To all those I served with (1964-1972) those men and women still serving and most of all the ones who gave all and never made it back WE salute you. There is no higher honor than to serve this great nation (as much as it is and has struggled) I pray no more of my family members friends or relatives have to serve in wartime and God bless those who serve now as guardians of this flawed but great nation. God bless America. To the generations of my family members we take a moment in remembrance. Oorah!; 5/29/23, 8:43 AM
Inga said...: I enjoyed the way you panned over to the water, almost felt like an animation at first.; 5/29/23, 8:47 AM
n.n said...: And the crest of the day to you.; 5/29/23, 8:57 AM
planetgeo said...: Portrait and film documenting Prince Harry and his life of tranquility after being kissed by Meaghan.; 5/29/23, 9:04 AM
Dude1394 said...: Love those toads, tree frogs and lizards.; 5/29/23, 9:31 AM
Rusty said...: Toad is just trying to get a little sun too.
Do you know what I found out? I'll tell you what I found out. This has to do with walking and exercise. I found that if I shoot the three games were set up for at the club, Trap, skeet and wobble, the steps add up to a mile and a quarter.; 5/29/23, 9:36 AM
Dave Begley said...: Good that you didn't pick it up. Otherwise you'd get warts. FACT.; 5/29/23, 9:39 AM
Original Mike said...: "Where do you go when you're to-oad away?"; 5/29/23, 9:42 AM
Big Mike said...: Sunning himself, hoping the rock helps him warm up that much quicker.; 5/29/23, 9:47 AM
Political Junkie said...: TCU! TCU!; 5/29/23, 10:52 AM
Narayanan said...: were any 'useful' chemicals provided by 'here is looking at you, kid?'; 5/29/23, 11:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Did anyone else notice the second toad?; 5/29/23, 11:11 AM
Darkisland said...: If you lick it, it may not turn into a handsome prince but you will think it did.

Of course, with Meade, one handsome prince is enough.

John LGBTQ Henry; 5/29/23, 11:15 AM
n.n said...: You had me at toad, lassie. But, with brunch in hindsite, a second croak. Ribbit.; 5/29/23, 11:56 AM
Inga said...: Ah yes, the 2nd toad was hopping on the ground. I wonder if that first toad on the rock was getting ready to eat that mosquito next to him.; 5/29/23, 12:14 PM
Kay said...: Yes, I noticed it! Beautiful creatures.; 5/29/23, 12:58 PM
Mea Sententia said...: I love the way the reflected clouds move as the water ripples.; 5/29/23, 2:20 PM
Fritz said...: Toad Lickers; 5/29/23, 3:22 PM
tim in vermont said...: The sequel to Less Than Zero, Imperial Bedrooms, gives the other side of #MeToo, where sex is just another currency in Hollywood, which is portrayed as a game of who can exploit who between beautiful young actors and actresses, and cynical producers and directors.; 5/29/23, 3:28 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I figured someone would have posted this.

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh, I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

I am Laslo.; 5/29/23, 3:35 PM
rhhardin said...: You can't turn a toad into a prince unless it has already been a prince and you're just turning it back. It has the self-consciousness of a toad.; 5/29/23, 3:36 PM
madAsHell said...: We drove home from Oregon this morning, and my wife used her iPhone to fill the car with 14-year-girl auto-tuned anxiety music.

Usually, it involves lyrics concerning unrequited love. It all sounds the same.

It made me think, if she's playing music from her iPhone, then who is listening to AM/FM radio??; 5/29/23, 3:40 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: We had a 1" frog in our kitchen this morning. I deported to the outdoors with our bug deporting device: a long handle with a grasping cone of 3" plastic straws. It was last seen hopping back to greener pastures.; 5/29/23, 4:01 PM
madAsHell said...: Little known fact......"Angel of the Morning" was originally titled "Toad of the Morning"!

"As my name is Biden" that's a true fact!!; 5/29/23, 6:07 PM
Eva Marie said...: I saw toad #2 after reading your comment. I agree with Inga. As you were panning up, it looked as if you were traveling through layers of clouds. Then I realized it was the reflection of the sky on the water. But it was an interesting effect.; 5/29/23, 6:14 PM
wildswan said...: I found a toad clinging to the intake to the pump that drives the fountain. This intake was just above water due to evaporation instead of just below the water line. Better people than me netted Mr. Toad up and placed him down in a gentle dapple of sun and shade. He remained unmoving for sometime, and then slowly moved away. I'm not sure what he thought happened - but it was over. Or was it? Tomorrow I'll look and see if he's returned. ChatGPT says he is unlikely to return because toads are unpredictable.; 5/29/23, 6:25 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: That video Rh linked to up top is a very good reason as far as I’m concerned why we have not been visited by intelligent life from outer space. If they are capable of interstellar travel there is a good chance they know how biological systems work.; 5/29/23, 7:11 PM
Meade said...: @madAsHell;
hahahahaha

It's another toad-ee at sunrise
Starin' slowly 'cross the sky
Sayin' goodbye

It's another toad-ee at sunrise
This old world still looks the same
Another frame; 5/29/23, 7:12 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Did anyone else notice the second toad?

The second toad chose to launch via Twitter. So he stayed away.; 5/29/23, 7:13 PM
phantommut said...: "I'm a toad, I'm a toad
Though my mom won't admit it,
I'm a toad, I'm a toad
When I say I am I ribbit."; 5/29/23, 7:14 PM
tcrosse said...: If there were an Academy Award for pronunciation of the word "Toad" it would go to Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year, where he calls Bill Macy one.; 5/29/23, 7:52 PM
Quaestor said...: A video essay on the thermal inertia of boulders.; 5/29/23, 8:38 PM
gadfly said...: NYT Opinion tells us "The Real Reason Your Groceries Are Getting So Expensive."

Big retailers like Walmart and Kroger “have a handle on suppliers that I can’t touch,” said Food Fresh’s owner in Georgia, who believes that chains wrest deep discounts from suppliers, making it impossible for the store to come close to matching their prices.

That condition has existed forever in the food business where big supermarket chains have always controlled market prices. But the unstated fact is that profits in supermarkets are velocity-based, which means cash generation is the key to making money. Back in the 1970's when I spent my time working for several food manufacturers, our supermarket customer's net profits approximated the two-and-a-half percent cash discount offered by suppliers for prompt payment.

Food is a commodity item, so the markups are small, but higher add-on pricing is available on other items such as cleaning products, utensils, appliances, etc, to carry more of the overhead load, thus we have supermarkets.

No secret here, fill shelves with higher markup items and cut back on fresh food. Sell prepackaged meats and lay off the butchers, for example. Dollar General and convenience stores at corner gas stations have been doing just that for years. Wholesale supermarket warehouses will even help redo what must be redone and even help refill shelves for a price reflected in obscene retail prices that we pay anyway.

Food costs are more because costs at the farm level have risen.; 5/29/23, 10:34 PM
Rusty said...: "Money for nothin' and your toads for free."

Has nothing to do with the Biden inflation you voted for, does it?; 5/30/23, 6:55 AM
wendybar said...: "Republican voters have been bashed over the head repeatedly with the message that Ron DeSantis is the more “electable,” new and improved version of Donald Trump. This was always a ridiculous talking point, as if an enigmatic figure such as Trump could be replicated, with all peculiar virtues retained and vices purged. But this shtick for DeSantis had life only so long as it remained an untested hypothesis. Under the pressure of a head-on collision with Trump, the careful ruse of “Trump without the baggage” is collapsing like a cardboard cutout." https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/29/republican-voters-dont-want-a-trump-knockoff/; 5/30/23, 7:01 AM
Rusty said...: Talkin' to you gadfly.; 5/30/23, 9:00 AM
mikee said...: Your toad is remarkably unperturbed by your presence.

When I went to grad school at Texas A&M in the 1980s, I found lodging in some 40 year old cinderblock duplexes a bike ride off campus, managed by a guy named Cal. He'd managed the duplexes as a favor to the owners, who were family friends, ever since he came back to the university to get a grad degree in biology at Army expense. In return he got a free apartment. And being single and frugal, he continued doing so when he became a university employee after Army retirement. He'd lived there for almost a decade when I moved in next door.

My roomie and I were invited to grill steaks on Cal's backyard patio grill a few weeks after moving in. And while enjoying our T-bones, baked potatoes and cabernet, a toad raced across the patio at lightning speed. I commented on it, never having seen a toad that could have competed in the 100 meter dash. Cal explained. Like Forrest Gump, he mowed the lawn religiously. And for the first year there, whenever one of the numerous toads around the duplexes would hop out in front of the mower, Cal would stop mowing and remove it to safety. After about a year of this, he was mowing one hot day when he wasn't in that good a mood.

He didn't stop for the toad that parked in front of his mower, and mulched the amphibian quite successfully. And he never stopped again. And he didn't make much of a dent in the toad population, as far as he could tell, because they kept appearing every few weeks in front of his mower.

After a few more years, regularly mowing the lawn for his exercise and deconstructing the odd toad with the mower, he noticed that while the toads were still hopping out of nowhere to block his mowing path, they were now escaping the blades with regularity by rapidly hopping out of the way. Problem solved, through selective elimination of slower toads. It only took about five years, or perhaps no more than 10 generations of toads.

The duplexes were demolished some years ago, and replaced with a multistory condo unit. I was pleased on a visit to the old place a few years ago to see a toad sitting in the condo yard poised to leap, warily watching out for lawn mowers.; 5/30/23, 10:10 AM
Anthony said...: I believe that was the title of a Fellini movie. . . .; 5/30/23, 10:19 AM