Comments on: A Ribbeting Story

A Ribbeting Story

azul — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:32:57 -0800

Hopkin Green Update. Last seen in this area.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:42:50 -0800

...

By: red cell

red cell — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:52:40 -0800

All your Hopkin are belong to us.

By: funkbrain

funkbrain — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:54:00 -0800

yes!

By: red cell

red cell — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:30:21 -0800

Aww man...I swear I commented here before I saw Cory's take on Hopkin on Boing Boing. *sigh*

By: luckyclone

luckyclone — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:48:08 -0800

i saw this last night and actually cried for about 15 minutes.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:14:59 -0800

I didn't cry, but it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who was oddly saddened by this. I had a fairly happy childhood, I swear.

By: Scoo

Scoo — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:22:49 -0800

Let me chime in before the snarkers ruin the thread. It is a pretty heartbreaking found image, Terry must have been really upset to lose his pal Hopkin. Young kids connect with animals; when my son was 2 or 3 we took him to Cape Cod, and he was quite sincere when he said with a smile to the contents of our bucket, "HI CRABS!" (We put 'em back BTW).

Poor kid. Poor Hopkin.

By: filmgoerjuan

filmgoerjuan — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 01:12:26 -0800

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 01:23:17 -0800

Scoo: A similar sweet story from last Halloween... The missus and sister-in-law were passing out candy as I was slumped up against a wall trying to teach them Mille Bournes. This little boy peeks in the door, and sees our cat (who incidentally hates everyone except my wife, and only tolerates me)... His face lights up, and he waves, happily enunciating - "HI, KIT-TY!"

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 01:25:41 -0800

The Hopkin Frog tears me up inside. Really. Just mentioning it.

By: lychee

lychee — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 01:40:24 -0800

I'm oddly touched by this as well. I desperately want to read an update, a real one, where the kid is happily reunited with his pet. The chances are slim, I know, but the creator of that magnificent Lost Frog flyer deserves it.

By: sklero

sklero — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 02:42:44 -0800

I love to worship Satan and drink blood and everything, but really do tear up a little ever time I see the hopkin thing. And thanks for those other anecdotes, Scoo and Samizdata.

By: sklero

sklero — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 02:44:16 -0800

Also, it's interesting that the kid chose to portray hopkin visually in the style of a police mugshot.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 03:49:02 -0800

The frog is free again with its own people. I can't understand how you can be so unsympathetic to a poor imprisoned frog, living or dying by the will of a small child.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 04:14:54 -0800

I've cried multiple times over this Hopkin thing, and have even considered sending him money (the kid's full name is Terry Chen, according to other fliers on the 'net, and the address given in Seattle (other fliers have a 206 area code on the phone number) belongs to one David Chen). But get this - it turns out there's a McDonald's toy frog called 'Hopkin' that looks astonishingly like the picture Terry drew. If it weren't for that, I'd have sent the kid $25 towards a new frog - but now my suspicion is some fucker stole his Hopkin frog-toy from McD's and he REALLY wants it back.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 04:23:45 -0800

Hell, let me explain it properly: Here is a photo of the McDonald's toy 'Hopkin'. I'm attempting to work up the nerve to cold-call the Chens and ask them whether it was a toy McDonald's frog or a real frog Terry lost. If the latter, I'm tempted to set up a donations site ala Ghyslain's - I can't be the only person who feels absolutely terrible about this (I lost a lot of pet frogs as a kid). From here: "A poster next to the bus stop describes a lost pet, a frog named Hopkin. "Please call me at (206)... or call 911. My name is Terry Chen. My frog hopkin. I can't find my frog! Who stolen she or he." There are hand drawn pictures of both the profile and a front view." So we have a name, and an area code in Seattle. Punching in the address from the flier on lostfrog.org into Mapquest, with the knowledge that it's in Seattle, we get this. My wife ran it through an online phone directory, and the address belongs to one 'David Chen', but the phone number listed is different from the one Terry gives on lostfrog.org. I'm not sure what to make of this. Anyways, that's all I've found out so far.

By: briank

briank — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 05:49:39 -0800

Someone from "the site which shall not be named" has already called. Hopkin is indeed a toy frog.

By: horsewithnoname

horsewithnoname — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 06:30:55 -0800

Hopkin is indeed a toy frog. Lies. Hopkin is clearly a victim of the current administration's environmental policies.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 06:38:07 -0800

briank: can you link or at least quote?

By: briank

briank — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 06:58:23 -0800

Ryvar -- because that site is not open to the public, I can't link directly, but I'm sure other members can corroborate my statement. Here's a comment from the person who called: I called about Terry's lost frog. Yes I'm a freak! (actually I drank too much wine tonight) I used Skype so it wouldn't be so traceable, hence the headset and I could barely hear Terry's sister. It was a toy frog. And Terry has more frogs, he has a hand puppet frog and some other toy frogs. She wanted to know if she could come pick up the frog. I hope it was OK to give her the website. Perhaps someone else from that site will be willing to host the .mov file so you can see it for yourself. This whole thing has been a deliberate meme generation effort from "that site", so I do not feel like I am violating any sort of "First Rule" by divulging this.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 07:11:31 -0800

WHAT FUCKING SITE? Out with it, gimp-lobster.

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 07:13:35 -0800

Briank, I thought the first rule of "that site" was not mentioning that it's filepile.org, which you haven't done anyway.

By: page404

page404 — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 09:30:55 -0800

Isn't SA "the site which shall not be named"?

By: kittyb

kittyb — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 09:34:53 -0800

So did anyone from "that site" track down a Hopkin and send one to Terry? I see a couple on eBay... I might bid on one and see if I can't get it to him for Christmas even if it does duplicate efforts. He should have a whole colony of Hopkins.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 09:35:56 -0800

Not a real frog, but a replaceable bulk item! Hooray!

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 11:04:54 -0800

Somethingawful is open to the public, you just need to part with $10.

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 12:14:34 -0800

Ok, maybe I was wrong. this photoshop meme is pretty lame too. Also, am I missing something here? How is this thread different from the last frog thread? Good to know it was just a toy though, another mystery solved.

By: briank

briank — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 13:07:57 -0800

kenko -- yes, you're right, but lately there is too much about "that" site on this one, if you know what I mean.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 14:11:27 -0800

I'm up for donating towards a new Hopkins for him. This has been an oasis of innocence during the whole election thing.

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 14:24:04 -0800

I might approach caring, briank, if I had a filepile login.

By: luriete

luriete — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 18:14:52 -0800

I say we buy like 100 hopkins and UPS them to Terry in Seattle. Someone here can set up a dropcash thingamajig; if anyone tells me where I can buy them, I'll be happy to pay for shipping.

By: mkn

mkn — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:35:39 -0800

briank -- lately there's been too much of this site on that one. Also, it's not really a manufactured meme as much as an isolated one. It just looks manufactured from the outside; but on the inside it was just natural and brave.

By: briank

briank — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 14:00:07 -0800

lately there's been too much of this site on that one. Ain't that the truth.

By: crunchburger

crunchburger — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 18:30:52 -0800

You should have seen the kid begging us to smuggle Brave Woman into Metafilter. I did it to shut him up :) And that's how memes spread.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 19:03:54 -0800

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/36691