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Just had to post this since it was a topic of conversation today with a family member. I once heard a Texas preacher say something like "a frog battin' his eyes in a hailstorm". Though I get a good mental image from this, I have yet to figure out what it means.

Hard to tell what he meant without letting us in on the context. If a frog were batting his eyes in response to a bad hail storm, he'd be having a bit less of a reaction than I would. In my experience I tend to run when under attack by the forces of nature.

Hard to tell what he meant without letting us in on the context. If a frog were batting his eyes in response to a bad hail storm, he'd be having a bit less of a reaction than I would. In my experience I tend to run when under attack by the forces of nature.

Makes sense. Unfortunately, it was a long time ago and I do not remember the exact context.

Frog eyes are not covered/"protected" by eyelids in quite the way mammalian eyes are (although the more familiar eyelids aren't hail-proof either!). This sounds to me like a fanciul way of saying that the action is wildly ineffectual.

I'm wondering if this was the same frog pressed into service when my grandparents talked about something being "finer than frog's hair"?

-gailr

Frog eyes are not covered/"protected" by eyelids in quite the way mammalian eyes are (although the more familiar eyelids aren't hail-proof either!). This sounds to me like a fanciul way of saying that the action is wildly ineffectual.

I'm wondering if this was the same frog pressed into service when my grandparents talked about something being "finer than frog's hair"?

-gailr

Wow. Excellent point! LOL @ "pressed into service". That frog gets around evidentally!

I'm wondering if this frog's hailstorm might have 'come up a frog strangler'?

I haven't heard that phrase in awhile. Once those frogs are strangled, just as well let Macbeth's ladies harvest their toes...
-gailr

would they be fritoes?

mark

Only if the game warden doesn't fine you...

I forget, was it eye of newt and foot of frog then bubble, bubble toil and trouble?

mark

Courtesy of Project Gutenberg's copy of The Tragedy of MacBeth


ACT IV. SCENE I.
A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.
FIRST WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
SECOND WITCH. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
THIRD WITCH. Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time."
FIRST WITCH. Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger's chawdron,
For the ingredients of our cawdron.
ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

A classic, true, but so many ingredients! You'd never get through the express line trying to pick up all that...

I much prefer the margarita version:
"Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog. Adder's fork and blind worm's sting. Barbados lime is just the thing! Cragged salt like a sailor's stubble. Flip the switch ... and let the cauldron bubble!"

-gailr

I'll have to look for that movie. I did like this quote:

Young Sally Owens: He will hear my call a mile away. He will whistle my favorite song. He can ride a pony backwards.
Young Gillian Owens: What are you doing?
Young Sally Owens: Summoning up a true love spell called Amas Veritas. He can flip pancakes in the air. He'll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he'll have one green eye and one blue.
Young Gillian Owens: Thought you never wanted to fall in love.
Young Sally Owens: That's the point. The guy I dreamed of doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist, I'll never die of a broken heart.

And I found this bit of trivia:

According to Sandra Bullock in the commentary, in the scene where Gillian and Sally get drunk with their aunts and they sling insults, the actresses actually got drunk. They were drinking some very bad tequila that Nicole Kidman brought.

I believe this bat's wool to be as fine as the frog's hair.

mark

Wool bats are familiar to textile artisans; in a search for bat wool I found the following interesting piece of folklore:

Oddly enough, bats were thought to provide a cure for baldness, as well as being used as a depilatory. Versatile animals, bats.

This may shed new light on the mane ingredients Larry quoted for us.

My reference aso contained this historical footnote:

Humans have even attempted to use bats to fight wars. ... during World War II, the U.S. armed forces experimented with a squadron of bomb-carrying bats, once more the common Brazilian free-tailed bat. The plan was to equip the bats with tiny incendiary bombs, and then to place them in containers to be dropped by parachute from airplanes. Before landing, the bats would be released from the containers, disperse, and thus cause many small fires. ...
Security was also a problem. Driving trucks of squealing animals through the Texas countryside did not help keep the secret weapons very secret. The bats themselves weren’t particularly cooperative, as several escaped wearing their bombs, and caused a minor panic. And then, finally, just at the advent of the atomic bomb, the bomber bat plan was abandoned.

Why didn't we ever cover things like this in US History? Unless they're still classified (or part of the re-classification process?) No doubt WMBDs would give a lot more bang to the ladies' brew. However, I'm not sure how I would react during an evening stroll if a bomb-laden bat was locking on my position... probably horripilation.
-gailr