All of us went to the mountains. My family, my sister's family. We stayed in these apartments we stay in when we go skiing. We went swimming and hiking. We had fun. Down the road from where we lived was a Gasthaus, this inn, where we had dinner sometimes. The first time, walking back in the dark after (a chaotic) dinner, we saw fireflies for the first time. My wife's family had seen them before, as my brother-in-law spent several years in Pennsylvania and they still visit relatives there. Later he told us stories about seeing thousands - the firefly is the Pennsylvania State Insect (what is the New Jersey State Insect, I wonder? What is your state insect?). All we saw that night were several dozens, but they were magical.
It was pitch dark and we were walking up this gravel road we knew from memory, a nice warm evening walking through the trees when we see all these little soft green stars. Some were stationary (the females) and some were hovering around, moving in slow lazy arcs (the males). If you want to know exactly which sort of stars they resembled most, go to the tenderloin and touch a Hell's Angel's bike (thanks Jessica) - fireflies are the stars you see when someone punches you in the head with a certain vigor.
That's what I think now, anyway, sitting here in my office in bright sunshine. At the time, we watched in silence as they moved, also silent. Just light, no buzzing. Just cool green bioluminescence employed to spread around that Photinus Pyralsis DNA.
Posted at August 10, 2004 12:36 PMtenderloin with a capital T. Which stands for Trouble.
Posted by: anne at August 10, 2004 05:06 PMAs kids, we used to catch the fireflies and pinch off the glowing part of thier tails and smear them on our faces. Glow in the dark facepaint. It was cool then and gross now.
Wisconsen state insect is the Mosquito and they grow large enough to carry off small children.
Posted by: Tim at August 10, 2004 05:48 PMIllinois' state animal might be those giant-assed spiders that build web villages on the surfaces of el station billboards. Do not lean on them while waiting for your train. Your little hitchiker can freak the crap out of anybody who ends up in the seat behind you.
Posted by: gordon at August 10, 2004 07:29 PMNew Jersey state insect is the Green-Head Fly, which sounds fake but is actually a real insect. It makes its home at the coastline of New Jersey, where everyone goes for a nice beach vacation. And then it starts biting you, Painfully. The little bastards
Posted by: Jado at August 10, 2004 10:19 PMHere it's the dog-headed butterfly, which doesn't have a dog's head so much as a silhouette of a poodle face on its wings.
http://www.library.ca.gov/history/symbols/butterfly.jpg
I don't think you find them in the Tenderloin so much as Pacific Heights and the Castro.
