Taking the pith

Today I had one of those great little flights of fancy and discovery that the internet can send you on.

It started with a cartoon in my Gary Larson desk calendar, featuring two frogs in a car. One (with tear-shaped fancy glasses, so obviously female) is berating the other for driving badly. She accuses the other of "driving like he's been pithed".

I've been a fan of Gary Larson since my early teens, and I must have seen that cartoon a dozen times in various calendars and collections, and every time I didn't quite get it. Was it supposed to be a pun on the words "pissed"? But that didn't make sense, because Americans tend to use the word pissed in the sense of "pissed off", meaning angry. I think it's only really in Britain that pissed also means "drunk". Anyway, "driving like you've been pissed" doesn't make any sense, and why would a frog lisp?

It was obvious I was on completely the wrong track. When I was a teen I'd let it slide and move on to the next cartoon. Today I decided to make use of the sum of human knowledge represented as a little orange fox on my start menu.

It turns out that "pithing" is what you do when dissecting a frog, sever it's spinal cord to render it immobile and senseless. It seems to be a common element in biology lessons in US high schools, which is probably why Larson used the word.

I've never cut open a frog, and I don't know anyone who has. It's not part of the UK Biology curriculum, as far as I'm aware (Joanna might correct me on that). All I really know about it is from watching that bit in ET where the kid sets all the frogs free. I needed to know more.

Extra internet research turned up the web site for The Frog Anti-Pithing Campaign. Which explains the "barbaric" practice in more detail and tries to rally other anti-pithers to get it banned.

Read that site, it really is quite enjoyable. Before I go on, I'd like to say that I don't necessarily disagree with it's author (frog dissection does sound very unnecessary in this day and age), but I still got a lot of laughs out of his arguments.

I'll quote you some of the best bits:

"Pithing a frog is much more horrorful (sic) than gassing a Jew (sorry, dear Jews, no offense intended, we are only trying to emphasize the horror of pithing a frog)"

Not content with equating Jews with frogs, the author makes other comparisons...

"Compare this to slavery, please: Slavery sounds so cozy and warm compared to a frog being pithed and dissected while alive! (Think of the frog as a human and you'll begin to grasp the horror of it all.)"

Wow, you're right! Picturing non-human things as humans does make situations quite horrific! I just mentally pictured One Man and His Dog with humans instead of dogs! Naked humans being forced to run around fields and herd sheep!! I was physically sick!!!

Then we get to The Campaign. The author urges us to get in contact with our local politicians to complain about pithing. He offers some helpful advice:

"It is quite easy to word letters to politicians, simply imagine you're writing your daughter, and that she's loosing it somehow."

So, I've decided to do my bit...

An Open Letter to the Rt Hon. Tony Blair MP

Dear Tony,

I'm very disappointed in you, young lady! Who was that man I saw you with on Thursday? Are you doing drugs? Do you want to get pregnant? Do you? Do you?

What happened to the little girl who I used to bounce on my knee?

Your mother and I are very disappointed with you. We love you really, you just worry us so much sometimes.

Love,

Becky xxx

P.S. Oh yeah, and can you do something about cutting up frogs? Thanks!