Quirky Berkeley

The Quirky Material Culture of Berkeley

Quirky Berkeley
  • Walkers
  • Help us!
  • Links
  • Blogs/Albums
  • Contact us
  • Latest Posts
  • Quirky Berkeley in the Media
April 26, 2015 by tomdalzell

Frogs!

 

What up with frogs?

We have long been fascinated with frogs.

ExodusIn the book of Exodus (7:25-8:11) we read that frogs raining from the sky were one of the ten plagues of Egypt.  Yuck!

Magnolia

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 movie Magnolia, we saw frogs raining from the sky on John C. Reilly.  Yuck!

The Brothers Grimm gave us the Frog Prince.

frog_princeKiss a frog and he’s a prince!  Yuck!

The-Princess-And-The-Frog-001

Never one to leave something grim or dark, Disney has given us The Princess and the Frog.

I am pleased to report that Berkeley has embraced the frog.  I would never use the word “kitsch” because it is a put-down word.  Similarly, I wouldn’t say “low-brow” or “garish.”  And don’t bother searching every Quirky Berkeley post ever – I probably have, but I regret it and I am not here today saying that the frogs in Berkeley yards are kitsch.  Let’s just take them on their face – frogs.  Joyful frogs!

2233 McKinley

2233 McKinley

10 Alamo

10 Alamo

848 Ensenada

848 Ensenada

562 Neilson

562 Neilson

2144 Russell

2144 Russell

1725 9th

1725 9th

1411 Blake

1411 Blake

2555 Fulton

2555 Fulton

1629 Russell

1629 Russell

1419 Acroft

1419 Acroft

2161 North Valley

2161 North Valley

1014 Colusa

1014 Colusa

1340 Hopkins

1340 Hopkins

1452 Stannage

1452 Stannage

1452 Stannage

1452 Stannage

1452 Stannage

1452 Stannage

731 Virginia

731 Virginia

1716 7th

1716 7th

1646 5th

1646 5th

917 Virginia

917 Virginia

942 Camelia

942 Camelia (gone now – too bad!)

761 Cedar

761 Cedar

1711 Blake

1711 Blake

1507 Ada

1507 Ada

1329 Berkeley Way

1329 Berkeley Way

1329 Berkeley Way

1329 Berkeley Way

1329 Berkeley Way

1329 Berkeley Way

My goodness, as Charlotte would say, my goodness.  That’s a lot of frogs.  So many, that I almost don’t need this one:

Path

Once in a while I end up with a photo with no address associated with it.  The rules say don’t run those photos.  But – this is a great frog from a path somewhere in the hills.  Somebody will tell me where it is, so I don’t considered it as lacking an address, just waiting for an address.  UPDATE: Keith at El Mirador Path going down to Euclid.  VICTORY!

When I took these photos to show my friend, he was gathering photos of two fisherman statues.

Isola delle feminine

This one is from the Isola delle Feminine (aka Isula dî Fìmmini) in Sicily.\

Statues00005

This one is from our neighbor, Pittsburg-no-h-California.  Sister cities!  Lots of Sicilian immigrants.  The sculpture is by Frank Vitale, who also created the Steel Worker of Pittsburg statue in town.  The fisherman statue reads: “In memory of the Italian fishing pioneers who  settled and developed early Pittsburg.”

There could only be two reasons that my friend was off on this pursuit.  The most likely is that he had met someone from Isola delle Feminine or Pittsburg and was enchanted.

42418

It is also possible that he was looking into Joe DiMaggio’s childhood in Pittsburg.

I told my friend that I wanted to hear a lot more about this but first, would he mind looking at the frog photos and letting me know what he thought.  He did and he did:

IMG_3677

 

Posted in Uncategorized. RSS 2.0 feed.
« Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House – Postcards
The Sun »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Here you will find photos of the oddball, whimsical, eccentric, and the near-rhyme quirky material culture of Berkeley.
Read More

Subscribe

Categories

  • Animals
  • Architecture
  • Cars, Trains and Planes
  • Food
  • Gone
  • Graffiti
  • Ma
  • Mailboxes
  • Major Quirky
  • Miscellaneous
  • Murals
  • Painted
  • Peace
  • Signs
  • Walks

All content © 2023 by Quirky Berkeley. Base WordPress Theme by Graph Paper Press