Welcome, ye weary web-crawlers

IN THE BEGINNING there was nothing, and then She said "Let there be blog," and there was blog, and it was good. She looked at said blog and christened it "Wayfaring Frog," and there was much rejoycing. After many moons She installed a hit counter, and it was good. Recently, it has been better, and no one knows why. .:.

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.

--E. B. White (1899 - 1985), Some Remarks on Humor, introduction

I'm not sure when it was this was, but perhaps a month or so ago I installed a hitcounter at the bottom of this blog. Back in those days, a long, long time ago (web-years) there were about six hits a day. And I could have named all of you.

About a week or two ago lil ol WFF was hosting up to 30 visitors a day, from all over the world. Readers came from all over the world, from as close as Canada, as far away as Tunisia and Malaysia.

Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.

--Bion (~100 BC), from Plutarch, Water and Land Animals

114 people were here today, and today ain't over yet. Where do you people come from? My handy little stats counter tells me you come from google, sadly misdirected to the ravings of a capricious college student rather than anything of any value. You have strayed onto one of the many twisty paths in the Web. I just hope you weren't disappointed.

The idea of an incarnation of God is absurd: why should the human race think itself so superior to bees, ants, and elephants as to be put in this unique relation to its maker? . . Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dung-hill croaking and squeaking "for our sakes was the world created."

--Julian the Apostate

Forgive me if I take the liberty of revealing some of your Google secrets: the keywords which mistakenly led you to my thought-kingdom:

- hitler youth winter jacket
- english word for weather reflecting on mood
- look like a soldier who's lost his composure
- Freedom engl.Historiker
- GEHTS LOS
- e.e cummings frog
- song:519 de matt wertz
- deja ecoute
- jenny don't be hasty you said you'd marry me if I was twenty th
ree

We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs.

--Eric Berne (1910 - 1970)

Many of these involve some of the songs or individuals I have quoted or referenced. I can't imagine all of these people even came close to finding what they were looking for, unless it was the title of the song quoted in the third entry above (Gomez, in case you care). What particularly mystifies me is "frog boxes". This perplexes me from top to bottom. First, what does "frox boxes" mean in any logical context? What could the seeker have hoped to find? Second, what arcane calculations deep with in the vaunted technologies of Google made that poor misguided program think that this blog would be the answer to their four-cornered anurian query? Trying the search "frog boxes" myself, I don't come up with this blog on any of the first ten or so pages. I do, however, come up with some of the following interesting tidbets:

- "Porcelain Hinged Boxes Humpty Dumpty Frog Prince Pirate Wizard of ..."
. "Frog Four-Piece Hat Box Bath Time Gift Set" (this sounds quite cute, actually)
- "Wireframes: Unpacking the Boxes / frogblog / frog design"
- "Across the Andes by Frog@Everything2.com" (this sounds cool)
- "Frog Environmental Unit (FEU)" (acronyms result in instant credibility)
- "Frog Gifts.Com, Call 1-800-FROG-FUN (1-800-376-4386), FROGS! FROGS ..." (I feel myself reaching for the phone)

I like less the story that a frog if put in cold water will not bestir itself if that water is heated up slowly and gradually and will in the end let itself be boiled alive, too comfortable with continuity to realize that continuous change at some point may become intolerable and demand a change in behavior.

--Charles Handy - The Age of Unreason

I can't imagine that any of these individuals found what they were looking for here. So I encourage you, dear reader, whomever you are, to leave a note as to how you got here and what you think. I'm curious.