Whatever Happened to Teresa Burritt?

I've been trying unsuccessfully recently to ignore the absence of Teresa's Frog Blog. Not only is the Frog Blog now private, and, as far as I can tell, open to no one, but she stopped writing * her comic.

You have to wonder what happened. Honestly, I said it before she disappeared: she had the best blog ever. It was a mixture of strange and beautiful, of honest and terrible, unique, feminist, and always, above all else, highly entertaining and funny. She seems to have an obsession with words and their origins, something I also am intensely interested in. It was her influence which led me to start telling my students that I wanted them all to be bibliobibuli.

I had some email correspondences with her of a personal nature. I named a cat after her. The cat has since disappeared- at about the same time the blog disappeared, now that I think of it. My recent email to her was returned.

What I wonder now is:

1.* Is Teresa okay?

2. *Will she be back?

3. Did we frighten her away?

4. Is it okay to rip off her ideas, if she isn't around? Because I never felt it was okay before, but if we can't even look at old entries of her blog- can I then become the queen of lame? Not a queen, no. But a minion. May I be a minion of the lame, Teresa?

This is the last comic she posted at Gocomics:



Sort of a frustrated kind of thing. And there is an owl. Is it a clue? This one is from March 24th:



I shared this with friends. The internet has no sick days.

In my heart of hearts, I think we hurt her feelings. And I think I understand. The internet is unforgiving.

* Update 4-13-2017: Teresa Burritt is alive and doing her Frog Applause comic. Her Frog Blog is still down. 


9 comments:

  1. My wife & I miss "Frog Blog" & Theresa very much! So much that when it poofed a few weeks ago, I did numerous google searches that led me to your blog. (You had done a blog post about her the last time she disappeared due to some family illness.) Wondering if I could glean some secret & hidden information about my beloved Frog Blog, I started reading your wonderful blog.

    So, some strange dude & his wife out in California are reading your blog & enjoying your writing because of Theresa. (We especially enjoyed the anniversary story with cat poop, daughter vomit & barn flooding. We live out in the country as well, and, oh my some weird shit happens to us too!)

    I'm sad that Theresa has disappeared, yet glad that her disappearance has led me to your very entertaining blog. I've been debating whether to comment here or not, but I just couldn't resist after seeing your Frog Blog post.

    Just want you to know, we really enjoy your writing and sense of humor. If you ever do get around to writing that book, we'll be first in line to purchase one. Oh, and incidentally, I bought that Jenny Lawson book on your recommendation- SO FUNNY!

    Cheers,

    Bill - up in the Skyhouse Ranch in beautiful California. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, a big mystery Teresa has presented us with. If you look at the comments you'll see we have a lot of company in the wondering and good wishes department. The regulars have created another website for lameness that's worth frequenting.

    I sure hope Teresa's okay and that she'll return sooner than later.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here you go, C_d:

    http://lafinlarry.net/faas/viewforum.php?f=5

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My emails were bounced back, too. It's interesting how much you can care about someone you've never met. Thanks for the address, Oroboros.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Her strips and blogs kept me going through
    my engineering designs. I want to help her; but cannot get through to her either. I worry for her. j.benjamindalton@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just stumbled across this as I did a search for Teresa's name, hoping for some light and knowledge. I, too, am a great fan of her work and her blog, and was concerned when she unceremoniously vanished from sight. I know how tough life can get, and I wish her well. It is my hope that things will progress in such a way that she is able to resurface and continue her wonderful work.

    -The Old Wolf has spoken.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Me, too, Old Wolf! Me, too. Teresa always seemed fond of you in her posts! I guess we just shouldn't take it too personally. I sort of disappeared for awhile, myself. This blog went private for maybe three years. But I did include the people who had subscribed when I went private. Oh, well. I'm sure she has her reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This deserves to be updated; Frog Applause is back, and has been for a while - but the Frog Blog is still down. As mentioned above, Laffin Larry provides a place for similar strangeness. But Teresa is alive and - it is to be hoped - well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Done! Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about this post.

      Delete