There once was this Toad, who went for a walk. Along the way, the Toad fell into a hole in the ground.

It was a pretty big hole, not too bad, kind of comfortable actually. But the Toad wanted out, so the Toad started climbing upward. Unfortunately the sides of the hole were slippery, and the Toad slipped down to the bottom, where there was a smaller hole. The Toad fell into the smaller hole: THOOP.

Now the Toad wanted out more urgently, so the Toad started climbing again. But this time, the smaller hole was even steeper, and the Toad fell again, into an even smaller hole.

At this point the walls of the hole were closing in. The Toad became sad, and despondent, and started to cry.

Along came an Elephant, who heard this bummed-out Toad down in the hole.

“Ahoy there,” called the Elephant. “What’s going on down there?”

The Toad sniffed and said, “Every time I try to get out of this hole, I end up in a smaller one. I think I am stuck.”

The Elephant considered and said, “You do sound stuck. I think you need to turn that thing upside down.”

“What do you mean?” asked the Toad.

“Well see,” said the Elephant, I’ve got this trunk, here. It’s the skinniest part of me. But it’s where I start, not where I end. First I’ll check out something with my trunk, and then I’ll think about it in my brain, and so on and so on.”

“I don’t get it,” said the Toad.

“You need an unstuckification,” the Elephant said. And with that, the Elephant stuck their trunk in there, and sucked out the Toad: THOOP.

The un-stuck Toad was very grateful. “Thank you, Elephant!”

Then the Toad thought a little bit. “Falling into the hole made me sad, and it was scary. But then you came along, and the hole wasn’t a hole any more, it was a view of the sky.”

“Yes yes,” said the Elephant, placing the Toad atop their head. The Elephant and the Toad cruised off to find a watering hole, where the water reflected the clouds and the sun.

Things Of The Week

Things of the Week

Lots of lil nature specials about toads

Oh gosh, a whole 90s-esque site about frogs, with games and a which-frog-are-you quiz!

Watch real baseball games in cozy 8-bit pixels.

Books, Art, Cartoons

All Three Sloth and Manatee books are at Radiator Comics!!

Brainwaves cartoons collection 1: The Fountain of Stuff at BookShop

Brainwaves cartoons collection 2: Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat at BookShop

License my cartoons: CartoonStock are terrific and I’ve been with them forever

Art Prints: Capybaras, Moose, Baphomet, more in the Print Shop at INPRNT who also are great and have cards too

Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.

May you look at the sky, may you meet a kindly elephant, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy