A funny thing happened.....but was it possibly too much of a co-incidence ?

This morning I had a quiet chat with Dangi. You see, when I was on the Internet checking the facts for yesterday's news stories, I did a search for frog/bag of spinach. The story I came up with took place in the Goldcoast of Australia, whereas Dangi's notes showed that the frog was found in Bath, England. The type of frog was also a little different (an eastern dwarf tree frog rather than a European tree frog). As you might imagine, I though it a little odd that such important details could be so different.

Anyway I asked Dangi to re-check his facts, and agreed that I would check mine again too. We would get together afterwards to compare notes.

So I went off and did some more 'research' and curiously enough, this time when I did my Internet search for frog/bag of spinach I found not one 'froggie-with-a-bag-of-spinach-problem', but two. It would appear that we were both right; yes, a family in Bath, England did find a green European tree frog nestling inside a bag of spinach. And yes, a few days later, an eastern dwarf tree frog was discovered in Australia, still alive inside a bag of spinach that had been kept in the refrigerator.

The two frogs had both been 'christened' Popeye (but perhaps, given the spinach connection, not so surprising).


Under the title 'Weird Intercontinental Frog Salad Synchronicity' (which put simply just means two strange things, to do with frogs and salad, happening at the same time) this is what I read:

As found by Dangi: Bath, England (5 days ago): A British family got more than they bargained for when they opened a bag of prepackaged spinach and out jumped a tiny green tree frog. It was named "Popeye" after the spinach-loving cartoon character. Popeye survived the incident unharmed and is due to be re-released into the wild.

As later discovered by me: Gold Coast, Queensland (1 day ago): An Australian woman got more than she bargained for when she opened a bag of prepackaged spinach and out jumped a tiny green tree frog. It was named "Popeye" after the spinach-loving cartoon character. Popeye survived the incident unharmed and is due to be re-released into the wild.

The article went on to suggest that it was more than a co-incidence.....
I wonder. Do you believe in the co-incidence of two green tree frogs being found in a bag of spinach on two separate continents (Australasia and Europe) within a couple of days of each other - or do you think perhaps that's too much of a co-incidence?



I am not sure what kind of frog it is lurking in amongst the 'spinach' leaves, but for the record, the photo in the earlier post is of an eastern dwarf tree frog (err.....at least I think it is!)

And by way of a final (yes, really!) addendum; I am reliably informed that the Spanish for spinach is espinaca. Canonigos (as printed on the label on the bag) are some other kind of edible leaf (probably what we call 'lamb's lettuce' in English). So the photograph of the frog in a bag of spinach ? Possibly not spinach at all! Curiouser and curiouser - as they say.