A Globe of Frogs

Decided to give my inbox a rest today. Nothing about cellphone bans, healthcare reforms or Cash for Clunkers.

Instead, today's metro column investigates a 75-year tradition in Downingtown's old Italian neighborhood, Johnsontown, where 1,000 men will gather for an event that celebrates what a group of kids with names like "Skid,"  "Sparrow" and "Muskie" did for dinner one day during the Great Depression.

They feasted on frog legs plucked from the Brandywine Creek.

For the past four days 10 women have slaved over a long banquet table preparing the Amphibious Order of Frogs dinner. The men will gather around 6, start eating around 7. It takes 20 waitresses to serve them all -- a process that lasts an hour. It all honors those long-gone, plucky boys from Johnsontown.

Naturally, I got a little something to eat -- a sandwich of sausage and greens. And a column. You get Robyn Hitchcock's "A Globe of Frogs."