In the near future the mid-Atlantic is expected to be overwhelmed by untold billions of cicadas, who will spend the next six weeks decimating the foliage, being eaten by cats, being served up in local French restaurants, and (of course) enthusiastically mating. The noise generated by the hopeful males will go over 100 decibels at the height of the party, which raises the obvious question of why they don't just drive BMW convertables like all the other guys on the make in the DC area do.
The past few days I have heard various rumors of the first sightings of members of Brood X. Today I saw the first one with my own eyes in a rather unexpected place. I was sitting in the Borders in Columbia drinking coffee when one plopped onto the table in front of me. Columbia, a paved over fractal of box stores and townhouses, is a pretty unhospitable place for cicadas and I doubt that the one I saw is going to be getting any action any time soon.
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