The Frog Bog Pontification from the pond. It's funny. Except when it's not. But it usually is. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 1626

Articles from The Frog Bog

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for April 9, 2007 2007-04-09 09:49:13 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Today Prudential upgraded CAG, which opened at $24.99, so TFF is downgrading GAC, which opened at $5.42.  A stock, due to its low price and daily volume, which TFF would rather not use, but the only stock (except another stock trading at $1.50) that is the alphabetic inverse of an upgrade from a big firm today.  Matrix downgraded BTH, which opened at $25.59, so TFF is upgrading HTB, which opened at $25.49. This week again saw practically no movement in the TFF portfolio/Wall Street Portfolio race. TFF currently trails by 1.6 percent. The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Thursday the 5th (the last day the market was open), are here. - ...

The Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer 2007-04-08 21:32:52 No, I do not receive any money for any of my customer alerts, nor am I affiliated with any of the products listed.  The Frogster here again, with another kitchen item you absolutely, positively must have.  It will chop your cooking time (chop, get it?) in half, give you a handy workout, and make your baked apples melt in your guests’ mouths. Yes, I’m talking about the Kitchen King, the Barroom Baron, the Eatery Earl.  The Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer.  How much time does it take you to peel, core and slice an apple?  An hour?  Three hours?  Yes, it’s a difficult, time consuming task, fraught with danger.  Especially when you’re making something like an apple crisp.  By the time you’ve peeled, cored and sliced seven apples, and you pick up that eighth and final fruit, you are fatigued, both mentally and physically.  You’re in a rush to finish, and you are most likely dehydrated.  It’s a culinary catastrophe waiting to happen.  Bu ... Apple

A Frog Bog Expose- The Secret Underworld of Peeps 2007-04-05 11:37:04 The Frogster reporting.  Easter.  For some, a time of peace, joy, renewal.  For others, merely a day off of work.  Spring is arriving, the scent of flowers is in the air, the birds are chirping, and we all sit back, enjoying the moment by biting the heads off of our little chocolate bunny rabbits.  Ahhh.  Nothing says Easter like Peeps.  These little chicks have been gracing Easter baskets for generations.  What do Peeps mean to the American person on the street?  I asked some people, and here’s what they had to say.  Hailey:  “Peeps are soooooooooo cute!  LOL!  Aww, they’re adorable- it’s like spring is coming and it makes me sooooooooooo happy!  Hold on, that’s my cell…” Yes, she actually said “LOL.” Tommy:  “Lemme tell ya.  Peeps, ya know, it’s like, ‘Yo!  Put on ya best clothes and uh, ya know, we’ll go to church and uh, ya know, eat somethin’ nice when we get home, and if ya don ...

Sniffing Out the Truth About Keith 2007-04-04 23:22:21 Big news, big news. Keith Richards.  You’ve probably heard about it, but if not, you can check it out here (profanity warning).  According to Mr. Richards, “…The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared, he didn’t give a (expletive deleted).  It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.” Most pop media stories like this just sort of bore me, but this story is interesting because it’s Keith Richards.  There isn’t anyone else on the planet who could say this and not get ridiculed for bad, tasteless humor and disrespect for the dead.  Think about it.  Angelina Jolie.  George Bush.  Donald Trump.  Shaq.  Johnny Depp.  Ban Ki-Moon.  Bill Gates.  Hillary Clinton.  If any of these people said they snorted the ashes of their father, they would be crucified by the media in all ...

Learn Me Good 2007-04-04 17:24:00 Learn Me Good is a great blog.  On one of my recent trips around the web in search of great original writing I came across this site.  The thing that grabbed my attention first was what he named his comments.  Masterful.  Read it.  I do.  You can get there from the link on the right side of this page.  - ...

The American Idol Rebellion, the Music Industry and the Nonexistence of Criminal Organization 2007-04-03 22:49:00 I turn the TV on to watch a few sporting events each month.  Beth turns the TV on to watch things like the Oscars and videos of TV shows (she’s currently working on season two of Grey’s Anatomy).  We just don’t watch TV.  We both have an extraordinarily low tolerance for commercials, and we have an almost equally low tolerance for the stuff between the commercials.  I’m not trying to be haughty or claim we’re too good for TV, it’s just not something we do. So, here’s what I know about American Idol: 1.  There was a guy on the show a few years ago named William Hung, who earned 15 minutes of fame because he was just that bad.  2.  There was a guy on this season with a big brown afro who sang “Kiss From a Rose” during an audition and he did a pretty good job, from the 20 second clip I heard during a commercial.  I will say, having done some throat exercises and vocal chord wiggling that may have, if you were listening on a ch ...

The Rutgers Athletic Department and Kenny Rogers’ Words to Live By 2007-04-03 21:55:07 Yeah, I know.  I was wrong about The Rutgers women’s basketball team.  And as the great philosopher Kenny Rogers reminded us, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” So, given my recent error… I’m gonna double down and say that The RU women are in The Final Four next year.  Five freshmen, no seniors.  In fact, I’m gonna quadruple down and say that the RU football team ends the year ranked in the top 10.  Forget it.  I’ve got all my eggs in one basket, the pedal to the metal and I’m locked and loaded.  Ready?  I’m gonna octuple down and say that the RU women’s basketball team wins the championship next year and the RU football team ends the season ranked in the top 5.  Remember, you read it here first.    - ...

The Women Put a Notch in The Scarlet Knights’ Shield, Missed Free Throws Aren’t Free and Nostradribble’s Triumph 2007-04-02 21:22:06 Beth and I watched the Scarlet Knights (my alma mater, as frequent visitors here know) women’s basketball team crush LSU last night.   I mean, crush.  If Rutgers hadn’t scored one point in the second half, they still would have won.  I spent a fair amount of time here extolling the virtues of the rejuvinated RU football team here, here and here (the last one’s pretty funny), but it looks like the first championship for RU in 56 years could come from the women ballers.  If RU plays tomorrow night the way they did last night, Tennessee is toast.    Beth has always said that there is no way an NBA player (the average NBA salary is almost $5 million) (yes, the AVERAGE salary) (I know, incredible, isn’t it?) should EVER miss a foul shot.  I used to think she being a little too tough, because professional athletes have a lot of pressure on them, and we all have good and bad days, etc.  But, after watching RU sophomore Heather Zurich, who, if she turns o ...

My Perfect Post 2007-04-02 10:25:11 Sorry if I seem out of breath.  I just got back from a bicycle ride.  I knew if I sat down with a cup of coffee to write this post I wouldn’t get back up and get on my bike at all.    Each month two great blogs, Petroville and Suburban Turmoil, put out a list they call “A Perfect Post.”  The idea is to find posts from that month that (according to Momma K) ”…made you cry, touched your heart, had you laughing out loud or made you believe in magic again. Whatever the word perfect means to you.” There are some great posts here, and I am honored and humbled that one of mine was picked, by Miss Cellania.  I’ve been spending some time looking for blogs that are original, literate and really entertaining.  I’m pretty picky about blogs that I link to.  You don’t have to look very far if you want to see pictures of an intoxicated female celebrity almost showing her private parts at an awards show or a post explaining why liberals ...

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for April 2, 2007 2007-04-02 09:37:01 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Today Credit Suisse upgraded TE, which opened at $17.46, so TFF is downgrading ETFC (recently changed from ET, Suisse’s pick’s inverse), which opened at $21.35. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded DE, which opened at $108.25, so TFF is upgrading ED, which opened at $50.94. The TFF portfolio and the Wall Street Portfolio were more or less neutral against one another this week, and TFF currently trails by 1.7 percent. The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Friday the 30th, are here. - ...

You Can Fool Some of the Bloggers Some of the Time, But You Might Poke Your Eye Out 2007-04-01 12:10:12 It’s in my nature to put up some sort of a post of a foolish nature on this April Fool’s Day.  Craigslist has put up some pretty funny April Fool’s jokes in the past, and I thought it might be fun to do the same.  However, after careful review, I have realized that most anything I could put up here that would spark interest such as some entity bought this website for a billion dollars or I recently took the job as the lead guitarist for The Rolling Stones would immediately be dismissed as tomfoolery, skullduggery or just kooky hijinks via a quick Google.   That leaves either things that wouldn’t spark interest, since most of the people who stop by this page don’t know me intimately enough to care that my wife is pregnant with decatuplets, or foot-shooting posts. A foot-shooting post would be something like, “Oh, me, oh my, this blogging thing is so terrible and I can’t take it anymore.  I’m signing off forever.  Goodbye, cruel ...

Miss Cellania 2007-03-30 22:03:14 Miss Cellania has a great blog.  She’s actually got a few great blogs, but the link I put on my links list will take you to her main site.  You should read it.  I do.  - ...

Our Big Trip Part 7- Wyoming and Yellowstone 2007-03-29 06:26:44 The Background about Our Big Trip can be found here. Day 43- Sunday, July 27: This morning, Laura, Ted, Beth and I made huckleberry pancakes.  We all had our roles. Beth made the pancake batter, Ted fixed the roof, and Laura and I picked the Huckleberries. Laura and I had the most difficult job by far. Huckleberry bushes only grow in the most difficult places to reach, which usually means on steep slopes that those goats that live on mountaintops somewhere in Nepal and have 2 legs longer than the other two would find hard to climb. In addition, huckleberry plants are fighting plants, so two cannot exist within the same acre. Plus, huckleberry bushes produce only one huckleberry per bush, and no two bushes ripen at the same time, to insure the species’ survival. Lastly, huckleberry bushes are protected by black flies that weigh at least 6 ounces each and have teeth that are a half an inch long. So, after tromping around Teton County for about 13 hours, Laura and I brought home si ...

How Many Diapers Must The Frogster Change Before You Can Call Him a Frog? 2007-03-28 09:30:48 Yesterday I was on duty.  My sister Kirsten, who is an artist, needed to do some sculpting.  Here she is practicing some mystical craft that has to do with hydrating and dehydrating her clay so it is the proper humidity.            Being the nice guy I am, I offered to help her out with the other members of the house.  The other members of the house include Hannah    Melinko       Flash     and Kira.            Kira is a ham and was so overjoyed when I got the camera out and started taking pictures of her that she ran around with the camera case in triumph until I took it away because she began experimenting to find out whether or not it was digestible. I figured I’d split my time between the four of them, but it turned out that one of them was a bit more work.  This one.            Everything was fine- the dogs went out, the dogs pooped, the dogs came in, the dogs went out, the dogs barked at something, the dogs came in.  Kira and ...

Jack and Diane Take Their Chevy Down Freedom’s Road, and it Doesn’t Hurt so Good 2007-03-27 08:03:15 Last week I was out with my good pal Noah at a great vegan place in Harlem called Strictly Roots at 2058 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. (at West 123rd St.)(their motto is, “We serve nothing that crawls, walks, swims or flies”), and a Chevy truck drove by.  I asked Noah what he thought about the Chevy Mellencamp thing, and he said, “I haven’t heard the CD, but I know you and Beth have been arguing about it for months now.”  Huh.  So it’s time to address the issue.    Beth and I saw the commercials about 1.4 million times during the NFL playoffs, and one of us decided he was a manipulative sellout and the other thought he was using the means at his disposal to get his music heard. I do not hate John Cougar Mellencamp.  I think that he’s written some great tunes, including one of the best Americana/folk rock tunes ever, “Jack and Diane,” and one of the best bar band straight ahead rock tunes ever, “I Need a Lover.”  ...