I must confess - I didn't actually squish that bug. I almost killed him, accidentally. I rolled my chair over him. I wasn't in the chair at the time, fortunately, but I thought he was a goner. He was lying on his side, motionless, so close to death that I'm sure he saw the light. I was hovering over him like, "OH MY FROG!" But then he stood up and resumed pacing back and forth.
The last couple of days there have been numerous bugs in the lab, most of them of the squished (but not by me) persuasion. They even climb up on my table. Maybe it's just a buggy season around here, but what are they doing flying around when the temperature is below 20?
We have a buggy season in Loveland - Miller Moths. They migrate over us in the spring in one direction, then fewer of them in the other direction in the fall. Many of them stop in our house to rest in our vacuum cleaner. Even though Twila goes into Panic Mode when she sees one, they're harmless. They don't eat polyester, so my wardrobe is safe.
The red and black bugs in our lab now look a little like Love Bugs, who make a buggy season in Florida. You should try to experience them, if you can. They're called Love Bugs because they do give a flying... well, they mate in the air. There are all these coupled bugs everywhere, and you actually have to use your windshield wipers if you're driving. It's gross, I confess. But Florida stations people at highway rest areas who clean your windshields while you squirt. How cool is that?
One other buggy season I remember is Water Beetles in Las Vegas. They're big, black things that look exactly like beetles, which isn't so strange, I suppose. During the season they're everywhere. They cover the sidewalks, they get in your luggage, you can't escape them. The weird thing is that they just drop out of the air. Like if you're playing blackjack, they'll drop on your table, and the dealer just flicks them off. Maybe it's Frog's punishment for Vegas being Vegas.
5 comments:
Did you yell to the bug, "Don't go int the light!" ? (I have no idea what the proper punctuation ettiquite is for including a quote with an embedded exclamation point at the end of a query. I probably should have just avoided it, but I didn't want to take the time to figure out how. That's a good indication that I'll never be a "real" writer.)
In defense of grammar:
I think the quotation convention is getting a bad rap. For the most part, the Chicago Manual agrees with Durf: if the ! or ? relates to the quoted text, it goes inside the quotation marks. Otherwise outside. Exceptions exist. As for Carl's desire to use both a ? and ! at the end of a sentence that also has quotation marks at the end (get that?), I believe you do *not* use both. Instead you choose the stronger mark. If anyone cares.
In defense of Twila's lack of appreciation for Miller Moths: No defense.
I think Carl's question deserves more consideration. If he'd written, Did you yell to the bug, "Don't go into the light!", it's an interrogatory sentence without a question mark, which is weird and possibly confusing, especially if it were a longer sentence. If he'd said, Did you yell to the bug, "Don't go into the light"?, the quoted part loses emphasis. It's a sticky situation, but using both punctuation marks is clear, if clumsy. Alternatively, he could have written, Did you yell "Don't go into the light!" to the bug? That's a little clumsy, though.
On further review, it appears that I was asking Durf if he yelled to the bug not to declare the variable "the light" as an int. I can't think now why that would be deserving of either emphasis, or even asking. Everyone already knows light is quantized. Perhaps I was in an altered state of mind!?
Carl, first of all, probably only I have the faintest idea what you mean. And, second, to we normal people you are always in an altered state of mind. :o)
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