Tuesday, July 11, 2006

have a croak and a smile

A lonely frog came home for a visit yesterday. It could have been one of the frogs whose mating calls we heard in the late winter and early spring. Or could it be a tadpole that is all grown up and looking for its birthplace? My son and I had decided that the mating calls we heard were those of the Mountain Chorus Frog. Yesterday's frog had yellow pigment on the concealed surface of its hind legs, which should be enough to prove us right.



When I decided to snap a picture of the frog for my blog, I didn't know that the News Sentinel would run a puff piece on the frog mascot of a competing radio station today. I would have liked the article better if they had included more than a passing mention of the bumblebee mascot from another competing radio station. That way the story would have been good for radio in general instead of just good for the one station that already dominates the market. The article does ring true when it describes the way listeners demand free t-shirts:
It's 87 degrees out. After 20 minutes, Weeks is ready for a break in the air-conditioned truck. He's just taken the frog head off when there's a rap on the window. An apparently intoxicated man points to a little boy standing next to him and demands a T-shirt. Weeks tells the man to go across the lot and wait.

The Frog emerges from the truck and heads into the dealership, scooping up a bumper sticker and a bag of popcorn, which he takes to the shy youngster outside.

The intoxicated man is not shy.

"You ain't got no T-shirts? No socks? Nothing?" he says, incredulously.

Wivick, who follows the cardinal mascot code of no speech, points to Dollywood coupons on the back of the sticker, which mollifies the man somewhat. "We're going next week," says his female companion as they leave.

It irritates Weeks when people send their children over to collect T-shirts and other giveaways for them. He angrily relates watching a mother send her little boy, wearing a beach towel, across four lanes of traffic on Clinton Highway -- for a T-shirt.
But to me, the most interesting paragraph was this one:
While in the frog suit, Weeks has had his share of unprintable adult propositions, and he often gets "flashed" by passing women. But every modern mascot knows to take care to avoid any accusation of impropriety with kids: "I wrap my arm around them, like this," he demonstrates, "and then I pat my arm. I never pat the kid."
The deejays at our local Frog station use regular names, which is a disappointment. If you're going to go to all the trouble to operate a Frog station, why not use the appropriate silly deejay names like Tad Pole, Ann Phibian, Polly Wogg and Jimmy Hoppa?
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

1 Comments:

Anonymous Pam Mc said...

Some people have no morals...sending a small child across 4 LANES????? and all for a t-shirt. The mother should be SHOT.

Oh and btw Frank, Forrest Gump is from Greenbo, ALABAMA!!!! *grin*

7/12/2006  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home