Greetings from Mister Frog

Yes, even though we know frogs are amphibians instead of reptiles, we are stubbornly featuring them as part of Reptile Week because every frog deserves his or her day.

The frog being featured here is the American bullfrog, which is usually green or yellow with a white belly. It can be found quite readily in southern states, such as Louisiana. We would give a shout out to Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal, but we don't want to be mistaken for a Republican although Jindal did have the guts to criticize Mitt Romney for his sour grapes speech to major campaign contributors regarding his well-deserved loss to President Barack Obama.

Apparently, the difference between amphibians and reptiles are that amphibians are born as soft eggs in water then hatch into eggs whereas reptiles are born in shelled eggs. Zzzzzzzzz.........sorry, thought I was back in my 10th biology class at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC, a suburb of Greensboro.*

Reptiles and amphibians can be seen at the San Diego Zoo though at the moment, it appears that a giant panda cub who was formally named "Little Grit" on Tuesday (the cub was born over the summer) is the latest animal celebrity at the park.

SIDEBAR: In ACC women's college volleyball action tonight, the home team Clemson Tigers won a tough 3-2 game (25-21, 16-25, 25-19, 16-25, 15-12) over the visiting Duke Blue Devils on Senior Night. Serenat Yaz, a Turkish player for the Tigers who wears number one, was among the four seniors who were honored for Senior Night. Yaz had 13 kills and 13 digs for Clemson. Moneisha Simmons, a junior from Bufford, Georgia, contributed with 14 kills and 7 digs in the victory for the home team.

Here are other results from ACC volleyball games from Friday night; the home teams are marked with the # symbol:

#Georgia Tech 3 Wake Forest 0

# UNC 3 Virginia Tech 0 (more details on this are available on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com ).

#Maimi (Fla) 3 Boston College 0

#Florida State 3 Maryland 0

#North Carolina State 3 UVa 0

http://www.louisianatravel.com

http://www.coolamphibians.blogspot.com

http://www.sandiegozoo.org

http://www.clemsontigers.com

http://www.ragsdalemarchingband.org

*- We did not go to Ragsdale High School, but we hear that they have a great marching band!

Bonus Road Trip (7 of 10)- Columbia, Mo., to The Indepence Bowl

Since we originally started the Road Trip series back in the spring of this year, we set out to try and cover every state, including Alaska and Hawaii (for the Aloha State, we used a short drive on the island of Maui). And, we think got all the states except for possibly Missouri.

So, we are including the Show Me State here just to be 100-percent certain. Since we are sort of based in North Carolina, this may seem like high treason as the University of North Carolina Tarheels will face the Missouri Tigers for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

This is actually an early bowl as it will be played on Monday, Dec. 26, at 5:00 p.m./Chapel Hill, NC, time.

For this entry, we chose two Mexican restaurants as our points of destination. La Siesta on North 9th Street in Columbia, Missori, the city where the Tigers are based, is the Mexican restaurant for Mizzou. And, for Shreveport, we have chosen Superior Grill, which also has three other restaurants in Louisiana and one in Alabama. In Sheveport, the restaurant can be found on Lime Avenue.

If you are in Chapel Hill, NC, we saw that our friends at the Turkish restaurant Tallula's on Franklin Street about 15 hours and 30 minutes from the Superior Grill in Shreveport, La.

But, we are looking for the distance between Columbia and Shreveport; and the answer is:

A) 9 hours, 45 minutes

B) 10 hours

C) 10 hours, 15 minutes

D) 10 hours, 30 minutes

E) 10 hours, 45 minutes

SIDEBAR ONE: Lots of books with very long titles are out these days, including this one we saw mentioned in "Rolling Stone" and later at a book retailer in Washington, DC: "Free Ride: How Digital Media Parasites Are Destroying the Cultural Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back" by Robert Levine, who is also a contributing editor to "Rolling Stone."

SIDEBAR TWO: We love headlines from the satirical news publication "The Onion," and this header from today's edition was as always quite funny and very dark: "(Detroit) Tigers Sign Jim Leyland Through His Death in 2012."

It should be pointed out that the legendary baseball manager Jim Leyland is alive and well; in fact, he turned 67 on Dec. 15th.

Silly Image to Fill Space- Jamie Lee Curtis

Since today should be either International Screaming Day or Edvard Munch Appreciation Day because of all the madness going on around us, we thought we'd do a quick entry with an image of the main scream queen of the late '70s/early '80s Jamie Lee Curtis as she appeared in the original John Carpenter version of "Halloween"
(1978).

Today, Curtis, 52, appears in commercials for Activia yogurt and writes for "The Huffington Post."

Fay Wray, who was the woman in the original version of "King Kong" (1933) is considered the original scream queen.

As far as Edvard Munch goes, one can see his most famous painting "The Scream" at the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo.

There is a "Stella/Stanley" screaming contest in honor of the play "A Streetcar Named Desire," which was penned by Tennesee Williams. The contest for this year will be held in late March at the Tennesee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival.

Each contestant must yell Stella or Stanley three times. Hmmmm.....yeah, it might be hard to top Marlan Brando.

High School of the Week- Acadiana HS in Lafayette, Louisiana

Our High School of the Week is Acadiana High School in Lafayette, La., where Martha 'Nikki' Broussard is principal. The school of some 2,000 students, nicknamed the Wreckin' Rams, was (according to Wikipedia) an early political battleground for the debate over whethe evolution should taught in the classroom in the late 1980s. Louisana's current Republican governor Bobby Jindal has supported initiatives to teach creationism in the state's classrooms, which is also a point of contention for those who agree with the findings of Darwinism.

50 Beers From Around the Globe- Cerveza Quilmes (Argentina)

Today's entry focuses on Cervez Quilmes, the most popular brew in Argentina so much so that the brand is considered a national symbol (according to Wikipedia).

Quilmes has been brewed since 1888, and it can not only be found in bars in Buenos Aires, but also in Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Spain, France, Italy and apparently here in the United States.

The beer also sponsors Argentina's soccer team, which fared well in the World Cup until they met Germany which beat them 4-0!

While researching this piece, we came across an informative and interesting beer blog (brbeerscene.com) from Eric Ducote of Baton Rouge, La.

We gather from the blog that Eric is traveling or recently came back from Seattle.

While Googling bars in Seattle, we came across The Alibi Room located in the historic Pike Place Market.

We have no idea if they have any beer from Argentina or not, but it sure looks like a hip, happening place!

Zip Code USA- Transylvania, Louisiana 71286

Today, we profile Transylvania, La., population 743, in our series which has been defunct for a few months now.

The town's general store, which also includes a post office, sells bat souvenirs for tourists who come through northeast Louisiana (the area borders Mississippi).

Transylvania, La., was actually named after Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., rather than the more famous Transylvania.

If it's not obvious, Transylvania Castle (also pictured here) is actually in Romania.