7-30-10


The Perfect Gift



The 3rd edition of the Santa Barbara Restaurant Guide
is available in leading bookstores in Santa Barbara

The Story of Nipper

nce upon a time a frog was born in a lovely fountain and he had remarkably large flippers. His parents said he has such big flippers, "Let's call him Nipper." Nipper grew up in the fountain swimming from lily pad to lily pad. He would jump from rocks into the water which, with those big flippers, go ca-splash. Sometimes while he was busy looking for flies or small insects he'd hear something go ca-splash but he'd never see who made the noise. Maybe, he thought, it was another frog, but no one ever swam to the surface.

One day he heard a ca-splash and something shiny caught his eye just before slipping below the surface of the water. He dove in with his big flippers and swam as fast as he could to the bottom of the fountain. There he saw the shiny circle floating down towards him. There on the bottom of the fountain he saw other circles made of metal. Some were big, some were small. Nipper didn't think they should be there; maybe they were lost so he collected as many as he could carry and put them in a cave in the rocks. But the coins still dropped in and eventually Nipper decided to investigate where they were coming from. He had never before explored above the rocks, but with determination and curiosity driving him he peaked over the lip of the top of the rocks and saw an amazing site. There was a world beyond his fountain and it was filled with tables and chairs and people eating and drinking and talking. For Nipper's fountain was in the middle of a very nice restaurant. They served very nice people with very good food.

Nipper hadn't seen another frog since his parents left the fountain years ago. At a table one day, he saw another frog. But this frog seemed very quiet. Nipper ventured out of the fountain, careful to avoid the busy waiters buzzing from table to table. He carefully climbed up the leg of one of the people of the table and peered over a napkin for a better look at the frog. But the frog didn't move. Not until one of the people picked up the bottle that the frog was on. For it was a bottle of Frog's Leap wine. Nipper watched and listened as the people talked. He learned about drinking wine and what to order from the menu. He also heard the man say a penny saved is a penny earned. Well, Nipper had saved a lot of pennies. So he jumped back into the fountain and collected all the coins he had collected in the cave. He gave them to the man who seemed to know so much. The man said that he would put Nipper's money to work for him.

Nipper would watch the people eating and drinking and talking and he learned a lot about the world outside his fountain. He would hear people talk about the food, he would hear people talk about money, and he would hear people talk about each other. He also discovered where the shiny coins came from. People would make a wish and then toss a coin into the fountain. Although he didn't like having to pick up those coins and put them in the cave, he liked watching people making wishes. Most of the time they would close their eyes and look like they were really thinking hard. Sometimes he could hear what they were wishing for. Some wished for Grandma to get well, others for a new baby, or winning the lottery, and even falling in love.