Sunday, August 06, 2006

Pieces of Sunday


The bug is real. If anyone hasn't heard the "Neil's Grape Jelly Flies" story (and I sort of doubt it) let me know and I'll tell it....again. I'm motivated. I'd like some new bugs.

5 comments:

Alys Sterling said...

Hm. I'm not sure if I've heard it or not, but I love the bug!

The poppets have arrived, but I've not dared let them out yet, as I'm at work...

Carl V. Anderson said...

Love, love, LOVE the Octopus with the scuba mask on!

Hate the bug.

Dan Guy said...

I haven't heard it, but I'd accept a link to a previous telling rather than demanding fresh oratory.

Anonymous said...

I like the bug. It reminds me of the cicadas (or 17-year locusts) I found when I was a kid. Most commonly, I'd be playing with other kids in the neighborhood and we'd run across the discarded husks the cicadas would leave on stalks of grass or the bark of pine trees as they crawled out of their underground burrows and metamorphosed from wingless larvae to winged adults. The outer shells were hard and brittle, broken in the center of the back where the previous owners had split their old skins and emerged into their new lives. The legs retained hook-like claws and a set of serrated, grasping front feet similar to those of a mantis.

Being kids, we'd take the old discarded shells and hang them from anything they could cling to: shirts, fingers, the tips of noses, earlobes. And being kids, we'd find this extremely entertaining and laugh ourselves silly.

I've always found insects (and most of the rest of the natural world) fascinating. Occasionally, I've seen living cicadas. They have beautifully veined and iridescent wings, thin as paper or plastic wrap, and amazing eyes that look like faceted or tiled surfaces seen through teardrop-shaped lenses of glass with a watery depth to them, and strange triangular, pointy mouth parts designed for siphoning out the juices of plants. I liked watching them ambling about awkwardly on their legs for a while before taking off in flight. And always in the warmer months in the evenings, you'd hear their buzzing song.

I always enjoy hearing a good story, even if it's one I've heard before, so please tell us about Neil's Grape Jelly Flies when you have the chance. Lolly and her insignificant angel want to hear more about them, too.

On a more ratty note, I also liked Ravyn's Rat Dance animation and was slightly surprised to see that the Rat Fan Club and I share the same initials. I wonder if that's part of the reason that I am such a Rat Bag (and Lisa) fan? Maybe, but I think it's more about the incredible artwork and the cool artist who makes it. Good luck on your joint venture with the Rat Lady!

Derek Ash said...

That whole cicada story reminds me of the time my friends and I found a drowned pig in the canal. What fun we had dressing it up in our parents clothes and slapping each other silly with it! Eventually it ruptured and sprayed us all with filth.

Ah.

Childhood.