"Sound carries faster through water than through air, and soon we heard a plink-plink-plinking. It was followed by what sounded like bacon..."

"... sizzling in a frying pan, which turned out to be a bubbly photosynthesizing elixir of microbes, decaying muck and insect larvae. Then there was a clicking — possibly aquatic snails... — and the quiet pops of fish mouths opening and closing, a miraculous sound that this lapsed fly fisherman thought she would never hear. Somewhere in the humid thickets a bullfrog croaked... During the pandemic, he... started listening to tidal pools along the sea walls — hearing nothing at first and then drawn by a 'persistent scraping.' It turned out to be limpets: aquatic snails that have teeth stronger than Kevlar to feed on algae and excavate rock. (He said he wouldn’t mind being reincarnated as a limpet.)... On our walk, we 'ear-witnessed' a Sabrett hot-dog stand’s hot buzzy generator before taking the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge, where he captured its vibrating walkway and staccato of speeding cars clip-clopping over metal plates."

From "It’s the Summer of Soundwalking. He Is Your Sherpa. 'We may be hearing but not listening,' Jacek Smolicki said, showing a reporter how sound travels through tree roots in Central Park and amplifying the scraping of aquatic snails" (NYT gift link)(lots of photos and sound recordings).

"It begins with one — one frog...."

 

I found the Portland Frog Brigade via this NY Post column, "Dems ditched American heroes for adults in frog suits and tiresome De Niro — all we can do is pity them."

The frog suits made me think of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," #6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." 

But the column says we should pity these people. It quotes Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon:

"Tonight I defy Trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful, radical, peaceful resistance with the Portland Frog Brigade. We answered with frog costumes, dancing, singing and joy when Trump wanted us to cower in fear."

I did think frogs were a right-wing mascot — I'm thinking Pepe the Frog — but it's 10 years since Pepe's heyday and people of all persuasions are entitled to a frog of their own. I think the hippie vibe is a good move — costumes, dancing, singing, joy. 

Breakfast at 0:09.

Just a quick bite.

I see the "Scream" face in the camouflage:

Speaking of "breasts like genetically modified grapefruit and behemoth buttocks bursting from a leopard-print thong bikini"...

... see Tina Brown's description of Lauren Sánchez in the first post of the day... before I saw that, I came close to buying this crazy bathing suit...

Facebook thought I might be interested in that. What does Facebook know about my skin and my aversion to sunscreen and my life in the shade?

The solid color full-body swimsuits are paradoxically brazen — especially the white one — and I had easily decided on leopard skin, even before I went out running this morning and — at 5:18 — admired the subtle camouflaging of the toad:

Look how hard it is to see the outline of the little beast against the pebbles and dirt. And that's what I'd like you to think about me if I ever go to the beach in a bathing suit again.

 

Photo by Meade, August 14, 2023, Great Sand Bay.

***

Well I, see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box... bikini... full-body swimsuit....

"The two frogs in your video, filmed on April 28, 2025, at Picnic Point Marsh near Lake Mendota, were... engaged in atypical amplexus (a misaligned mating attempt) or territorial wrestling."

"The reversed, head-to-tail position was caused by the chaotic breeding environment, with males possibly clasping incorrectly or fighting for dominance during a spring breeding chorus. The loud frog noise confirms a high-density breeding event, common in Wisconsin marshes at this time. The human-like appearance of the posture is due to the frogs’ flexible bodies and the dynamic nature of their interaction...."

So said Grok, answering my questions about a video made by Meade and uploaded to YouTube under the title "Froggy went a courting." I'd embed it here for you, but

"So we’re left with a two-bit case that has devolved into dirty bits, filled with salacious details...."

"Trump came across as a loser in her account — a narcissist, cheater, sad Hugh Hefner wannabe, trading his satin pajamas for a dress shirt and trousers (and, later, boxers) as soon as Stormy mocked him. The man who was the likely source of the 'Best Sex I Ever Had' tabloid headline, attributed to Marla Maples at the time, no doubt loathes Stormy for having described their batrachian grappling, as Aldous Huxley called sex, as 'textbook generic.' Like a legal dominatrix, Stormy continued to emasculate the former president after her testimony, tweeting: 'Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh … wait. Nevermind.' The compelling part of this case is not whether Trump did something wrong with business papers. The compelling part is how it shows, in a vivid way, that he’s the wrong man for the job."

Writes Maureen Dowd in her new column "Donnie After Dark" (NYT).

1. Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy. Let's look at him in his underwear and sneer at his sexual fumblings, as described by someone who openly hates him — please, emasculate him! — and let's laugh.

2. It's so exciting — sexually and politically — that she doesn't see the downside. The aggressive desire to humiliate and crush him makes him sympathetic and makes you look like a bully. 

3. I'm imagining the jurors talking about this testimony and trying to connect it to the elements of the crime — assuming they can get their mind around what this crime even is. In my vision, they say: What was that Stormy Daniels testimony even about? Why did we have to know what material his pajamas were made out of? Satin! A shiny fabric. Waved about... to distract us.

4. "Batrachian" — it means "Of or pertaining to the Batrachia, esp. frogs and toads" (OED). It wasn't Daniels's adjective. Dowd got it from and credited Aldous Huxley. I found the relevant passage, in his "Point Counterpoint":

‘But what has love to do with it?’ asked Slipe. ‘In Beatrice’s case.’

‘A great deal,’ Willie Weaver broke in. ‘Everything. These superannuated virgins—always the most passionate.’

‘But she’s never had a love affair in her life.’

‘Hence the violence,’ concluded Willie triumphantly. ‘Beatrice has a n*gger sitting on the safety valve. And my wife assures me that her underclothes are positively Phrynean. That’s most sinister.’

‘Perhaps she likes being well dressed,’ suggested Lucy.

Willie Weaver shook his head. The hypothesis was too simple.

‘That woman’s unconscious as a black hole.’ Willie hesitated a moment. ‘Full of batrachian grapplings in the dark,’ he concluded and modestly coughed to commemorate his achievement.

Halloween sweetness.

A TikTok video, so it's below the jump:

Cave of the toad.

This morning at 5:15.

Toad of the morning.

The fencepost frog and the 3-D printing.

I've got 5 TikToks for you tonight. Some people love them.

1. The frog and the dog.

2. Minimalist hygiene for backpackers.

3. Community guidelines.

4. Everybody in the South knows the best way to drink water.

5. Son talks to his mom through the doorbell camera.

Beasts of Wisconsin.

1. There are 24,000 bears in Wisconsin: "The DNR said in 1989 there were only about 9,000 black bears in the state. Now the population is up to 24,000. 'Our bear population has been steadily increasing and expanding southward'...."

2. They found an alligator in Long Lake in Fond du Lac County. 

3. We spotted 6 foxes romping together in our neighbor's lawn just before sunrise the other day. They were very active, even trying to run up a tree. The next day, same time and place, I saw them again. At what point do you say, now, there are too many foxes?

4. Seen today in great numbers: very tiny toads/frogs (about a half inch long), extremely nervous chipmunks, rabbits (doing their best to look like rocks), turkeys.

"It’s curious that booing is absent from modern theatre, because it’s as old as European drama."

"The earliest reports of audience booing were recorded at the annual festival of Dionysus in Athens where playwrights competed to win prizes for their efforts. The verdict was delivered by the crowds who howled (that is, booed) at the worst dramas and cheered for the best.... [These days a]udiences have developed alternative ways to express their dissatisfaction. Coughing is the commonest method.... Noisily turning the pages of the programme tells your neighbours that you’re unimpressed by the antics on stage. Fiddling with sweets or rattling your ice cubes has the same effect. Snoring is sometimes heard in the stalls – surely the most lethal form of theatre review.... We are confused about booing. We enjoy the sound because it represents a revolt against authority, against celebrities who misbehave, and against poor taste. Yet we also consider it discourteous and even vulgar...."

Writes Lloyd Evans, in "Three cheers for booing in the theatre" (Spectator).

The oldest meaning of the verb "boo" — going back to the 1500s — is "To low or bellow as a cow does" (OED): "The ungodlye colleges of priestes..that dayly boo and rore the holye scriptures" (a1555).

I've assembled 10 TikToks for your delectation. Let me know what you like best.

1. What Ricky Gervais said that got some tweeters calling him transphobic. 

2. And Ricky Gervais explaining cancel culture.

3. "I love Franch."

4. A man imitates his introverted wife (she's filming and laughing).

5. What's really going on this painting?

6. One too many turtles.

7. "The frog is not available...."

8. When The Band was The Crackers.

9. That nod!

10. Inside the twee cabin.

"'We’re a church, and this is sacred medicine,' said Brooke Tarrer, 42, a former Texas schoolteacher who in 2015 founded the Universal Shamans of the New Tomorrow, which makes consumption of the toad venom..."

"... a central feature of its practices. Ms. Tarrer, whose church in Huntsville, Texas, charges $250 for a venom ceremony, positioned herself against what she called 'Green movement people' aiming to protect the toad. 'We would never go with synthetic,' she added."

From "Demand for This Toad’s Psychedelic Venom Is Booming. Some Warn That’s Bad for the Toad. In a sign of unintended consequences of the psychedelic resurgence, scientists say that the Sonoran desert toad is at risk of population collapse" (NYT).

Interesting to see 2 types of nature-focused people pitted against each other. Do you want to save a creature in nature or do you want to preserve access to natural psychedelic drugs? Does freedom of religion tip the scales for you? Does the $250 charge for the "venom ceremony" sap you of your enthusiasm for the religion argument? 

Herpetologists say the toad seems to have adapted to human-modified landscapes like irrigation ditches, suburban yards and water tanks on cattle ranches....

Well, if it's in your yard...

When the toad is threatened, it excretes toxins strong enough to kill full-grown dogs.

Get it out of your yard! Or don't have a dog. What's the point of a dog when this toad is excreting God-finding venom? 

"Goblincore: the fashion trend that embraces ‘chaos, dirt and mud’/Sales of clothes and accessories featuring mushrooms, snails, frogs and worms are booming, but why now?"

Headline at The Guardian. 

Yes, I know this isn't the most important thing going on in the world right now, but maybe that's why we've got Goblincore. I remember a similar enthusiasm for mushroom and frog motifs in the early 1970s.

[Goblincore] “romanticizes the ugly, lesser appreciated parts of the natural world.” Its trappings include animal skulls and earthworms... [I]t is about “chaos, dirt and mud.”... “I’ve been tagging some of my pieces as goblincore for over 18 months but recently it seems anything frog, snail, moss or mushroom related has exploded,” says Jane Geloso, owner of the Palm Tree Etsy store.... 

[I]t can be tied to queerness and anti-capitalism. In relation to queerness in particular, she says, “there’s something incredibly freeing about goblincore. Mushrooms are huge in the community and some species of fungi have thousands of sexes – it’s just about vibing and existing, not fitting into a mould.”... 

A close but more feral cousin to cottagecore, a trend for a stylised, agrarian way of life and its aesthetic – prairie dresses, jam tarts, thatched cottages and strawberry motifs – that was big last year, goblincore is... more “rough around the edges.” 

“Wildflowers and white linen dresses are wonderful but goblincore is staining that same dress with mud and moss and watching snails and slugs eat the wildflowers”....

Isn't it just hippies all over again? And then it's just a question of how much of a "dirty hippie" you are — either really, because you're poor or you've lost track of hygiene, or as a matter of style, a funky aesthetic. 

Now, please gaze upon these vintage cannisters (from 1976). Maybe you remember the strange era in America where people put stuff like this in their kitchen:

I believe if you stare at that image for 60 seconds, thoughts of the actual important news stories of the day will rise up within your brain and dance about to the maddening music of tinkly harps and flutes:

"Some fun fact about these little creatures: In Vietnam we eat them"/"How dare you come here and say that. Oh nonooooooo."

"those were delicacies in someplace in VN,some are just plain street food,some are expensive high class dishes, I’m sadly have to announce to you that." 

 From "A Little Vietnamese Mossy Frog" (Reddit).

ADD: There's a truly adorable photo at the link, which is the reason I'm blogging this. Please don't think I'm blogging this to attack the animal-eating choices of people in a foreign country. Unless we're vegetarians, we eat the animals we're used to eating, and we don't give a reprieve for cuteness. We eat lambs if we like lamb. 

Here's video of a lamb dreaming, presumably not of becoming a chop.

A mellow sunrise this morning.

Watching too was my animal friend...



There was a waning gibbous moon...



But 22 minutes after the "actual" sunrise time, the orange orb had not shown up:



Write about anything you like in the comments. And thanks for using the Althouse Portal to Amazon.

At the First Light Café...

... you can talk all night.

And I'll give you this bonus toad...



... to highlight the availability of the Althouse Portal to Amazon.

"Hey, baby!"/"No! It's surprisingly okay!" — things I said out loud before 5:30 a.m.

1. "Hey, baby!" — I was addressing this creature:



2. "No! It's surprisingly okay!" — A response to a human creature who asked me "Is it buggy out there?" as I was running back from my sunrise vantage point.

3. Creature observed but not spoken to: