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20 Legal Stud. F. 137 (1996)
The Exploding Frog: A Legal Writing Teacher's Dream

handle is hein.journals/lstf20 and id is 157 raw text is: THE EXPLODING FROG: A LEGAL WRITING TEACHER'S DREAM PHILIP MEYER (where the Frog meets Antonio Banderas) I have this dream. In some ways it is a silly dream. But it is the only professional dream about legal writing I have ever had. Or, at least, this is what I see after I awaken and pull the nighttime strands of energy together into words. Nevertheless, I wasn't aware of what it all meant until I talked about it with my friend Nancy, who is a therapist, but more important a sensitive person. That part of the story comes later. In part this is a personal dream, filled with images that are particularistic to my curious psychobiography. Equally, however, it is a dream that points to my professional work. Silly though it may be, it is a dream about what it feels like for me to be a teacher of legal writing. Some of it may be familiar to you, especially if you have been a teacher of legal writing or a frog. In the dream, I'm standing outside a familiar place. It could be the parking lot outside the faculty building at the law school where I now teach. It could be any of law schools where I have worked. The dream begins on a busy afternoon. The parking lot is filled with the comings and goings of others. Busy, important teachers pass by me in a hurry to get someplace. No students. I recognize the teachers. They do not recognize me, however, or even see me although I am a colleague. The reason: I am a frog. Huge. Life sized. Almost humanoid but with a slick oily frog skin. Bumpy, bulbous, and slime-covered, pre-cancerous skin. My body is frog-shaped, puffy and green, striped with yellow and black markings. I'm constantly puffing out with air, slow and asthmatic, aware of my own labored breathing. And I am so self- conscious and embarrassed about what I am that I cannot seem to talk. I inhabit the drainage ditch that runs along the edge of the parking lot behind the faculty building at the law school. I keep out of the way of people so no one will step on me. I am constantly fearful that someone will pop my blubber. What a mess that'd be. The drainage ditch is safe and its where I belong. Where else am I supposed to be? All day long I listen to my own belchy froggy breathing. Unable to articulate words. Finally, it is evening in the parking lot of the law school behind the faculty building. I am alone. Relieved to be in the quiet and darkness of evening. When someone pulls up into the lot. I see the dark truck swinging around, backing up to the door that opens to the faculty offices. I am anxious. Fearful. But I am fully alive too. Especially when I realize who it is. Antonio Banderas. Come in his dark truck. To rip off the law school.

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