Making gigantic leaps with God's help

I get to hear their baritone every night — for a while longer anyway. They are loud enough to keep a person awake. A group of them is called a “chorus” for good reason. I hear splashes but rarely see the American bullfrogs I am hearing. I was curious enough to look them up.

I learned American bullfrogs eat anything from insects and small fish to mice, snakes, birds, and bats. It's unfortunate that birds are on the menu. One site describes them, “Bullfrogs are gluttonous predators that consume anything moving that fits in their mouths.” They actually retract their eyeballs to help push food down their esophagus. Not sure I want to spend too much time trying to visualize this trick.

Then there is the tongue that can launch and snap back five times faster than a human can blink. This bungee-cord effect is partly due to it being attached to the front of the lower jaw. I won't elaborate on the tongue's squishy consistency that wraps around its victims and the “spit that thickens to super-glue.” Their prey wants to be dead at this point.

Tadpoles can remain that way for one to three years — so the next time things aren't happening fast enough, wait for legs. And when they do appear, expect a major impact. Adults can leap in one jump ten or fifteen times their body length.

Bullfrog facts do not yield much romanticism. But that 1971 hit “Joy to the World” made Jeremiah the bullfrog iconic. Everybody wanted him as a friend. We were all crooning, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine...,” and “Singin' joy to the world. All the boys and girls now. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me.”

A couple of co-singers in the Three Dog Night band passed up the song twice. Hoyt Axton had written it for a television cartoon that never made it on air. One of the characters was a bullfrog. When he “doggedly” pitched it again — to the band's co-founder — he had adjusted the lyrics. Jeremiah was now a prophet. Prophets have their place, but thankfully Chuck Negron said, “The prophet thing wasn't very rock 'n’ roll, so we changed it back.”

His acceptance of the song caused some friction within the group. The other band members felt Chuck should have agreed with them when they turned it down. However, he pulled them in his direction and “Joy to the World” became the band's biggest hit. Everybody won.

In bullfrog “jug-o-rum” they waited for their legs and made the gigantic leap. It can be done. 

Carol Shirk Knapp is the author of The Preacher's Kid column.