Fourteen years of correspondence featuring the ranaphilic fulminations of ""Nestle J. Frobish"" and replies by that ""Mad...

READ REVIEW

FAIR PLAY FOR FROGS: The Waldie-Frobish Papers

Fourteen years of correspondence featuring the ranaphilic fulminations of ""Nestle J. Frobish"" and replies by that ""Mad Butcher of the Swamps,"" California politico Waldie, and assorted others. The letters, which mysteriously surfaced in the column of the San Francisco Chronicle's Art Hoppe, leap off in 1962 when then Assemblyman Waldie proposed his infamous bill containing the words, ""Frogs may be taken by slingshot""--a humane measure, he claimed, offering an alternative to the death-dealing legal ""gig."" Frobish, to protect the humble frog, organizes his Worldwide Fair Play for Frogs Committee, using in part the mailing list of the defunct Committee to Oppose the Hunting of the Passenger Pigeon by Garotte. He drafts the Omnibus Frog Protection Act, woos Waldie with promises to shrive him of his bloodthirstiness and an LP of ""Sounds of North American Frogs."" So it goes, and even Congressman Paul N. McCloskey, Jr., jumps in the Smiling Pond. Really a one lilypad caper but jolly entertainment after a few convivial rounds.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1976

Close Quickview