Welcome to Katfrog's Corner

So, I've made a point of ignoring the current presidential race here in my blog not only because of the lying, dishonesty, and ridiculous rhetoric but because I cringe every time I hear someone try to justify such dishonorable behavior.  The candidates do enough fake apologizing and excuse making; I truly don't need to hear that someone not only believes it but also spouts it back. However, yesterday Ted Cruz did something that needs a statement.  Cruz and his campaign have presented the field with a myriad of underhanded tricks, acting surprised when people complain.  Or as Cruz said, "When you win campaigns, the people that lose tend to be unhappy about it." I've heard people try to justify the actions, claiming that Cruz didn't personally approve of the behavior and really, we can't expect him to know everything about his campaign, right? Wrong.  Dead wrong.  Cruz is trying to become the President of the United States.  If he can't keep tr

Today is the anniversary of George Washington's birth on February 22, 1732.  Most of the United States celebrates this birthday on the third Monday of February during the holiday known as President's Day.   But have you ever wondered how this holiday came to be? In A Small Tangent... The British Empire used the Julian calendar until 1752 when it switched to the Gregorian calendar.  Created in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar, this calendar contains the same basic structure as the Gregorian calendar with two major differences: The new year begins on March 1st instead of January 1st. It has a simple but inaccurate system for dealing with the extra bit of time accumulated each year. The result is that George Washington was born on February 11, 1731 in the Julian calendar.  But February went from the last month of the year to the second month of the next year, George's birth year changed from 1731 to 1732, while the day changed from the 11th to the 22nd. Back to 1800...

Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia Died This Week Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court died during the night between February 12 and 13th.  A conservative member of the Court known for his support of presidential powers and a more literal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, Scalia's death leaves a hole in the Supreme Court at a time when several key issues are up for debate. While my personal belief system did not line up with Justice Scalia's, I still respected the man for his work and his opinion.  I've read several tribute to Scalia this week, but the one presented by Stephen Colbert actually sums up  my feelings on the matter rather nicely. Goodbye, Antonin Scalia.  The world misses you. A 5-Year-Old Saves Her Blind Grandmother from a House Fire This past Wednesday morning, Chloe Woods and her grandmother, 76 year-old Claudia Arceneaux, Chloe Woods, age 5 were asleep while Chloe's mother dropped off her siblings at scho

#CodedWithLove

This past weekend, a student from my son's high school successfully committed suicide.  No, it's not someone I know, or someone that my son even knows. But that doesn't matter. The ripples from a suicide go well beyond the grieving family.  All of the people who thought they were this person's close friends now wonder if they missed a sign, wonder if they could have said something that would change the past.  People who knew this kid as a casual friend or an acquaintance wonder the same thing.  And people who don't know this kid now wonder if any of their friends feel depressed enough to try suicide. His past and present teachers quietly cry in the background, convinced that they could have stopped this, if only...if only they had done something, anything, differently.  School counselors alternate between sadness and rage:  sadness at the senseless death and rage at the system that keeps them so busy with paperwork that it sometimes feels as though they don

Barbie Gets a Makeover From Glamour Magazine After years of criticism and questions about the influence of Barbie, Mattel finally released a new set of Barbie dolls, including Tall, Petite, and Curvy as new body types.  While I applaud the toy company for updating this iconic doll, I wonder if they couldn't have done a bit more.  Why are Tall, Petite, and Curvy exclusive?  Why not have Tall and Curvy or Petite and Curvy? Also, what happened to the Little People Barbie?  I know that Little People are not the majority in the country, but that doesn't mean that they don't want appropriately sized dolls. A Vegan Butcher Shop?!?? No, I did not type that wrong.  A brother and sister team, Kale and Aubrey Walch, ran a successful Kickstarter campaign last year to raise money to open a vegan butcher shop in Minneapolis named The Herbivorous Butcher .  In their new shop, the Walch siblings will create meat-free sausages, pepperoni, jerky, and other typically meat-based p