Frog

Frog is back. I don’t mean the croaking amphibian that hops gleefully from lily pads and catches flies on an outstretched, cartoon-like tongue. This is our Frog, who instead of croaking only shouts, “Have you seen America’s funniest joke book?” from his post on 13th Street. Frog has been in hibernation, it seems, through the cold weather and long rains that plague Eugene in the wintertime. During these times, his only appearances came when he peddled his bike through the enormous puddles on campus. His plastic trailer full of copies of the “best damn joke book in America” wove unsteadily behind the bike’s sloshing tires.

But as we pull back the heavy drapes of winter and let the sun shine in, Frog has returned and with him, campus has reawakened. Instead of looking at their feet as they pass one another on 13th, students and teachers alike look forward and might even crack a smile. Instead of immediately inserting their ear buds and cranking up the most melancholy Bob Dylan song on their iPod, students talk with each other as they exit the lecture halls across campus. And on the first warm, sunny day of the year, Frog’s joke book is not only the best in America, it’s the best in the world.

Image: http://orbitingfrog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/tree_frog.jpg