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- NATION, Page 57American NotesCONTESTS Nobody Beats The Wiz
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- When the huge foreign-born challengers showed up at Angels
- Camp, Calif., they filled U.S. competitors with dread. Back
- home in Cameroon, it was said, giant African frogs routinely
- leap up to 40 ft. How could such a performance fail to win the
- Calaveras County Frog Jump Jubilee?
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- But when the hopping began, the two aliens, sponsored by
- animal importer Andy Koffman, managed nothing better than a
- puny 7-ft. 10-in. leap in the finals -- even though one of them
- jumped twice. Winner of the spirited annual commemoration of
- Mark Twain's yarn The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
- County: Help Mr. Wizard, a homegrown Concord, Calif., bullfrog
- who jumped a quite respectable 19 ft. 3 in. The prize for the
- best alibi went to Koffman, who insisted that his big frogs,
- accustomed to the equatorial tropics, just got cold feet. Said
- he: "They're not used to the weather we've had here."
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