#frog plague

[gay-jewish-bucky]

Rb for a bigger sample size!

[markscherz]

given historical ranges of different species, what kinds of frogs could have been present for the plague of frogs in exodus?

Fantastic question. Let's assume that the Egyptians considered toads and frogs to be different organisms, and therefore the stories referring to frog plagues indeed mean frogs other than Bufonidae (I think this is a reasonable assumption). If this is the case, there are basically two key candidates: Ptychadena nilotica and Pelophylax saharicus. Ptychadena have the edge over Pelophylax because they are somewhat more tolerant of drier habitats. Sometimes they occur in huge densities, so that every step sends dozens springing away. Both can lay enormous clutches, many thousands of eggs, and in a particularly wet year, I could easily imagine a boom in froglet development that would cause a 'plague'. And because the frogs would be trying to disperse, but heading into habitat that is too dry for them to persist long-term, you would quickly have a lot of dead frogs.

[raendrs]

their marcy

[slyandthefamilybook]

I know we all like to joke about tzfardei'a like "how can frogs be a plague? it's just a bunch of frogs!" But I think we're going about it the wrong way. So imagine, if you will, this:

You're at home when you find a frog. It's sitting in your living room. That's not so bad. You might even make a TikTok about it. What a silly little guy! But eventually it has to go, right? You don't want a pet frog. So you hold out your hand and the frog hops on and you take it outside. You stand up, go inside, close the door, turn around, and there's a frog.

Okay, that's weird. It must have just jumped through your legs when you stood up. But no worries. You hold out your hand and the frog hops on and you take it outside. You stand up, go inside, close the door, turn around.

There are two frogs.

Okay that's definitely weird. This time you don't try to pick them up. You just use your hands to gently push them out the door. You stand up, go inside, close the door, turn around, aaaaaand one of the frogs had peed on your floor. Great.

You go into the kitchen and open the cabinet under the sink. You reach in and pull out a cleaning spray. Sitting on the nozzle is another frog. Okay, what is going on?

You take the spray bottle outside and gently encourage the frog off. You stand up, go inside, close the door, turn around, and there's another frog. It's standing in the puddle of piss. It croaks at you. Okay, this is fine, you're fine. It's just a frog. You gently but firmly push the frog outside. You stand up, go inside—

There's seven frogs.

In frustration you spray the cleaning spray at one of the frogs. You didn't think it was that much, but the frog's eyes bulge and it croaks and hops around in circles. You watch, horrified, as it lands on its back and its legs stretch out and then it stops moving. The other frogs stare at you in silent judgment. Another one pees on your floor. You gently tap the overturned frog with the toe of your boot. It doesn't move, and it's starting to smell. You reach down and touch one of its feet. It doesn't respond. You go back to your kitchen and get your broom. You start to shoo the frogs out of the door. You get them all out. You close the door and, perhaps irrationally, lock it. You return the broom to the kitchen. There's a frog clinging to the handle. You shout and shake the broom and the frog flies off. It hits the floor with a wet thud and does not move. You pick the dead thing up by a foot and drop it in the trash can. It lands on 10 more frogs, sitting at the bottom, all peeing.

You go to your room and slam the door. Behind you you hear a croak. You turn, very very slowly, and look at your room. Every surface has at least one frog. They all just sit there, staring at you, peeing on your belongings. Several of them, implausibly, are already dead. Their overturned bodies create a stench you wonder how you could have missed. You don't even know what to do with this many frogs. Where do you begin? You go to the bathroom. There are frogs in your toilet. You spitefully go to flush it, but there's a frog clinging to the lever. You try to wash your face in the sink, but it's full of frogs. You leave the bathroom and feel something soft and small crunch beneath your foot...

Everything seems to freeze and you sense dozens of pairs of baleful black eyes turn toward you......

You feel something brush the back of your neck and you swat at it, but your hand meets empty air. You feel something wet and you look down at your hand to see a frog sticking to it, peeing. You shake it off and it lands on the floor, already dead. You trample several more frogs as you sprint to the kitchen. You throw open the fridge, crushing the frog on the handle against the wall, and pull out a brewski. You pop open the cap and raise the bottle. There's a frog already inside your brewski. You throw the bottle down and it shatters, sending tens of tiny frogs scattering every which way. You feel something on the back of your neck again, and again you swat and again hit nothing but air, but this time it's because the frog has already made it down your shirt. You shriek and shout and twist about and a frog jumps inside your mouth. It's one of the tiny ones, and when you talk about this with your therapist later you won't feel confident that you didn't swallow it.

The frogs are everywhere now. Your house is more frog than house. Your kitchen is more frog than kitchen. There are frogs on your fresh fruit, and frogs in your sink and frogs in your sourdough starter. Frogs stick to the ceiling and jump inside the extractor fan above the stove where they make a horrible slicing noise. This can't be happening. There aren't this many frogs in the world, probably! You hear a click and turn, horrified, to see your oven preheating. It's set to 700°. Does your oven even go that high? Inside there are crisp frogs, and frogs waiting to crisp. The smell is unbearable.

You wade through a sea of frogs: frogs piled up on top of other frogs, all shapes and sizes and colors and all peeing and dying and smelling. You burst through your front door and take a deep breath of the fresh, clean air. What you see makes your head spin.

A mass of frogs in the approximate shape of your car sits where you're pretty sure your car used to be. A thing that looks like a dog but made of frogs runs past, screaming. Your neighbor's house writhes under a coat of green and red and yellow. You don't even want to imagine what your neighbor looks like. Frogs inundate your herb garden. They're eating all your herbs. You feel them creeping up your shins, but you can no longer move. You fall to your knees, squashing more frogs as you do. The frogs are all croaking. It's so loud it makes your ears bleed. Their voices all blend together, becoming a persistant hum. And oh g-d. You think you can hear words.

[laurents-secret-diary]

Can we see any of your drawings you may have had for the side characters please??? 👉👈

I only got a couple so far! I think I'm gonna do Nicaise next

[mwolf0epsilon]

A mini comic made for a Discord Server Art Prompt.

You have to wonder about the competency of someone who teaches a frog. Although, come to think of it, if a frog can get a PhD maybe the frog is actually a competent medical practitioner.

— ☕️ Ko-fi | 🧡Commissions

[sketchstep]

FROGO

[mallory-likes-whales]

Decor...

[the-one-with-spider-brainrot]

i have actively tried to imagine middle child narinder but i cannot for the life of me - I assigned that cat second youngest from the start and thats how it's gonna remain /lh

[alrightbuckaroo]

Happy Sunday everyone! Thanks to the ever lovely @rmd-writes and @heartstringsduet for the tags! @welcometololaland was expecting some more Old West AU this past Wednesday and I figure I'm not one to disappoint (unless you're my trigonometry professor) so I'm going to make it up this Sunday.

TK unbuttons Carlos' jeans and pulls them down with ease. Blood rushing through him, Carlos thinks the adrenaline is heightening the world around him. He revels in the feel of the denim scraping down his legs.  

TK’s level to the tent Carlos’ boxers are creating. He looks up at Carlos with a raised brow, and a hubristic grin. His green eyes are glassy and his pupils blown wide, showing discernible arousal. “I’m flattered.” 

Carlos feels aflame; he’s sure his face is turning a startling shade of scarlet, and that it’s hot to the touch. He’s flustered, both physically and emotionally. He’s fighting a war within himself and waiting for a casualty.  

no pressure tagging: @carlos-in-glasses, @three-drink-amy, @reyesstrand, @strandnreyes, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut, @orchidscript, @freneticfloetry, @ambiguouspenny, @welcometololaland, @lemonlyman-dotcom, @wandering-night19, @paperstorm, @birdclowns, @sanjuwrites, @bonheur-cafe, @basilsunrise and here's an open tag for anyone who wants to share (tag me back!)

[drbarty]

Got im.

[faircatch]

Crocodiles vs. Frogs

So, discussion with my brother at the Seder:

There is an idea among some rabbis discussing the texts...

Those who read the text for the second plague and saw Tzfardeia ( צְפַרְדֵעַ), an amphibious creature. They interpreted this to mean a frog. So it was a plague of millions of frogs (or as some currently like to think, one giant frog).

Buuuut... others are now suggesting tzfardeia was for amphibious reptiles: crocodiles.

The crocodile headed god, Sobek, was closely tied to the Nile, so it would make sense as the plagues were intended to show that Hashem was more powerful than the Egyptian gods. Some discussions: Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

There are a lot of links talking about it, so this doesn't appear to be too new an idea...

There is a frog headed goddess and in Egypt, frogs are tied to fertility, so frogs still work as a plague...

And yeah, millions of frogs are terrible, but a plague of millions of crocodiles is terrifying.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Idiots.....this is how you get Makat Tzfardeah......

[id in alt]

[thatsbelievable]