To err is human

Today, for a second, I thought I'd lost a Panamanian golden frog at the Reptile House. It's hard to explain what a sickening feeling that is. Fortunately, it was just hiding on the side under the lip of a jar, no doubt laughing at me, but I actually ought to thank it for reminding me to have a sense of perspective.

A couple months ago I got the name of something slightly wrong in a story, and they had to run a correction, and it was a huge mortifying deal that made me and everyone look bad, and I was miserable and felt like a huge idiot, etc. It is important to remember at a moment like that - at least, in the work I do now, I can't kill anything. The worst mistake I can make is still really no big deal in comparison.

I used to think of something similar when I taught linguistics. One of the good things about my field, instead of teaching, say, medicine, or how to build bridges, was this: when a linguistic theory fails catastrophically, no blood is shed. I could be sure that none of my students was ever going to accidentally kill anyone using the material I had taught them.

Well, unless someone died of boredom, of course.

Cute babies

Bullfrog tadpoles in a big concrete tank where they can't swim away from us, for a change.

Went herping and all I got was this lousy fungus

Actually it's a really spectacular fungus, isn't it?

We went to try to look at some tadpoles again. We perceived a lot of things swimming away faster than you could see them, and also a lot of little things jumping into the water before you could see them.

It was somewhat less eventful than the last trip. We used the GPS this time and didn't get lost, although I found the dirt road rather terrifying, and even worse was the HUGE bee-like insect that got into the car on the way back. I swear it looked like the nightmarish creature in this video.

Really, it's a lot better to go to the zoo.

Today's Hell in a Handbasket Report

On July 2, the Washington Post ran a couple of pictures of frogs that I know personally from the Reptile House. They misidentified the species of one of them, despite giving a description of that species in the caption that didn't match the frog in the photo. The caption also said the pictures were taken at Amazonia, despite the fact that neither were South American species, which should have given someone pause.

I wrote to them to point this out, but apparently they have decided it was not important enough to run a printed correction. In contrast with the following:

· A Reliable Source item in the July 1 Style section incorrectly described Kansas City Barbeque in San Diego as the site of the scene in "Top Gun" in which Tom Cruise sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." Kansas City Barbeque was the site of the scene in which Kelly McGillis played the song on a jukebox, but Cruise's singing scene was set in a different bar.

Yup, that's clearly more important than scientific facts about nature. Who could argue?

Expedition

We think this is a wood frog. The Technical Staff has been to this pond at different times of year, without me, and seen many adult frogs and many tadpoles. I got to see this in-between one.

I was reminded on this trip of why I prefer to see wild animals at the zoo:

1. There's no missing the highway exit and getting off in the wrong place twice.

2. And no wondering why a man who owns TWO car GPS devices, and usually insists on using them when I don't want to, would have left BOTH at home.

3. And no missing a short cut and then finding that the road for the usual route is permanently closed.

4. And no going back to the short cut to find that that's even more closed.

5. And when you finally get there, no boot-sucking mud or poison ivy without the option of buying cold drinks or resting in air conditioning.

Another picture of this guy, and some nice moss, on Flickr.

The rare and elusive Pistachio Frog

On Thursday evening we had our fundraiser at the zoo that involves many restaurants. The theme was Year of the Frog. I looked at every booth hoping to find a restaurant that had the nerve to serve frog legs. I didn't see any, although later when I was doing a demo a visitor told me he had eaten some, but it was too late for me to go find it.

However, I did find these lovely pistachio frog macaroons and spent the rest of the evening looking forward to the opportunity to make a post that would be tagged both 'amphibians' and 'baked goods.'

Strange feeling of deja vu

Today I tried to listen to a guy give a Powerpoint presentation about amphibian decline. I managed to stay for about an hour. Then I had to leave before I started to gnaw my own leg off.

Here's the thing: I gave up lifetime job security so I would never again have to sit in a room listening to a PhD utter the words "controversy in the literature." And it turns out it doesn't make a damn bit of difference what topic he's saying it about.

(To get the same information as his talk in about three minutes, click on the link to my Year of the Frog article over there on the right, if it's still there.)

Happy Belated Leap Day

Solomon Island leaf frog.