Froggone it.

Lawn and garden decorations always interest me. I'm old enough to remember when there were still a few jockeys and Mexican burros around, but you seldom see them anymore.  I've written about gnomes and deer and concrete planters and Mary and St. Francis. But I am only now starting to see Frog Princes. 

And they, me.

Wayfair has several, Amazon does, Home Depot.... None of them look like the chubby chap shown here, but they're all frogs wearing crowns, so they count.

Honestly, when I first saw this guy I wondered what he was for. I thought the crown was some kind of rack for holding something. Maybe citronella, or a chunk of suet for birds?

Sorry I didn't recognize you, your highness!

But why frog princes? Why now? These things are tangentially tied to cultural movements, near as I can see; the burros, for example, seemed to appear when American culture's focus shifted more toward California from the Eastern cities, and to our southern neighbors from our European friends. What culture leads to frog princes?

Disney? But none of them look like the frog prince from The Princess and the Frog. The Disney Store doesn't even sell lawn sculptures, let along frog ones. So it's not Disney.

What are these frogs for? Are you supposed to kiss them? Is there some ritual connected to these I don't know about? If you kiss the lawn frog will it turn into a prince? Will it magically repel bugs? Is this heathenism? Should I call my priest?

Don't ask me. I never know what's going on. Least of all anything to do with royalty, or frogs.