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The Cicadas are Coming!

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  • The Cicadas are Coming!

    Queue media mass hysteria.

    From North Carolina to Connecticut, the 17-year cicadas are expected to emerge in massive swarms this summer, emerging from their underground burrows sometime in May before they pupate and emerge as flying, thrumming adults.

    It will be interesting to compare the pre-emergence breathless predictions with what actually follows.
    "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

    "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

    "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

    "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

  • #2
    Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

    I remember back when I was in my late teens, living in the Chicago area, when the 17-year cicadas emerged then.

    I awoke one morning in the early summer early, and I heard this weird science-fiction type humming noise. I was curious to find out where it was coming from, and so I set out in exploration. About 2.5 miles away, in the Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve along the Des Plaines River, I found the source: an amazing number of cicadas all busily thrumming away. The sound was incredibly loud (obviously, to be so audible so far away).

    Several friends of mine lived near that area, and they reported that when the cicadas started dying off, they needed to use snow shovels to scoop up all the dead bodies. Some streets became dangerously impassible because all the insects squashed with tires made the roads slippery with insect blood.
    "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

    "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

    "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

    "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

      http://www.theonion.com/articles/17y...out-911,32341/
      Go Green! Go White! Go State!

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      • #4
        Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

        Let the media hype begin!

        From the New Haven Register website:

        "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

        "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

        "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

        "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

          Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
          Let the media hype begin!

          From the New Haven Register website:

          Psi storm or archons should do the trick. Oh crap, I must construct additional pylons.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

            Despite how much is going to be made of this by the media, and how sickening it will get, I find the life-cycle of these things fascinating.
            Having a clear conscience just means you have a bad memory or you had a boring weekend.

            RIP - Kirby

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            • #7
              Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
              I remember back when I was in my late teens, living in the Chicago area, when the 17-year cicadas emerged then.

              I awoke one morning in the early summer early, and I heard this weird science-fiction type humming noise. I was curious to find out where it was coming from, and so I set out in exploration. About 2.5 miles away, in the Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve along the Des Plaines River, I found the source: an amazing number of cicadas all busily thrumming away. The sound was incredibly loud (obviously, to be so audible so far away).

              Several friends of mine lived near that area, and they reported that when the cicadas started dying off, they needed to use snow shovels to scoop up all the dead bodies. Some streets became dangerously impassible because all the insects squashed with tires made the roads slippery with insect blood.
              Yeah, completely harmless but annoying as hell. I was out there in 1990 on a two week trip... Of course I was 8 at the time.

              If its as intense as the Illinois brood its going to a long month or so.

              Edit: a good broom will be needed as they start to die off.
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              • #8
                Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                I was in DC during the 2004? outbreak. We were traveling by coach. Those suckers looked like fireworks when they hit the windshield.
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                • #9
                  Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                  Originally posted by Patman View Post
                  Yeah, completely harmless but annoying as hell. I was out there in 1990 on a two week trip... Of course I was 8 at the time.

                  If its as intense as the Illinois brood its going to a long month or so.

                  Edit: a good broom will be needed as they start to die off.
                  Admittedly my memory could be faulty, but at least around DC, I don't recall the infestation nearly in 1996 being as bad as the one which I will assume was around 2004 as Netman wrote.
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                  • #10
                    Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                    Originally posted by Ralph Baer View Post
                    Admittedly my memory could be faulty, but at least around DC, I don't recall the infestation nearly in 1996 being as bad as the one which I will assume was around 2004 as Netman wrote.
                    i am hoping we'll be able to compare notes from up and down the east coast. Places like Rock Creek Park in your backyard for example might be inundated since the little buggers gnaw away at tree roots and the like underground for sixteen years.
                    "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                    "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                    "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                    "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                      Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
                      i am hoping we'll be able to compare notes from up and down the east coast. Places like Rock Creek Park in your backyard for example might be inundated since the little buggers gnaw away at tree roots and the like underground for sixteen years.
                      I distinctly remember riding my bike in 2004 over roads covered with them. I don't recall anything ever in Rock Creek Park, but I may never have been there at the right time.
                      sigpic

                      Let's Go 'Tute!

                      Maxed out at 2,147,483,647 at 10:00 AM EDT 9/17/07.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Patman View Post
                        If its as intense as the Illinois brood its going to a long month or so.
                        Yeah. It was an annoying summer. A few outdoor concerts at Ravinia had to be cancelled because the cicadas were louder than the orchestra/performers.
                        “Demolish the bridges behind you… then there is no choice but to build again.”

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                        • #13
                          Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                          Cicadas, a culinary delicacy?

                          Bun Lai, owner of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Conn., and one of the city’s best known chefs, has a few gastronomic plans for the bumper crop of periodical cicadas expected to emerge along the Eastern seaboard in a couple of weeks. He’ll be cooking up batches of the critters for himself and possibly for certain, select customers.

                          ....

                          Along with the intense public fascination over the creatures comes a healthy curiosity about people who are willing to eat cicadas.

                          There are a fair number of these folks, actually. They even create recipes with cicadas, everything from tacos and cookies to dumplings and pizza.

                          Aficionados report that the meatier, young female cicadas taste best. They also note that cultures such as the Native American Iroquois tribe in upstate New York considered cicadas a delicacy.

                          ....

                          Lai is going to steam some cicadas with ground spices and herbs — in a fashion similar to the way Maryland crabs are prepared. He’s also going to do a cicada boil with spices and herbs.

                          “The challenge is to take an ingredient that’s abundant and nourishing and make it appealing to people,” he said. “I’m not trying to gross people out. I’m not running a frat house. I respect the cicada.”
                          "I respect the cicada." Great line.
                          "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                          "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                          "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                          "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                            Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
                            Cicadas, a culinary delicacy?



                            "I respect the cicada." Great line.
                            No one has posted anything on the Lunch thread yet about eating cicadas.
                            sigpic

                            Let's Go 'Tute!

                            Maxed out at 2,147,483,647 at 10:00 AM EDT 9/17/07.

                            2012 Poser Of The Year

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                            • #15
                              Re: The Cicadas are Coming!

                              That might be because Jen broke her mixer.

                              /knows he probably just got himself in trouble.
                              FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY: 2012 FROZEN FOUR


                              God, that was fun...

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