{"id":44324,"date":"2021-07-02T14:36:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T21:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=44324"},"modified":"2021-07-02T14:36:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T21:36:58","slug":"friday-fun-cicadas-make-themselves-right-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/07\/02\/friday-fun-cicadas-make-themselves-right-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Fun – Cicadas Make Themselves Right At Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you live in one of the 15 (un)fortunate states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, along with the District of Columbia, you no doubt have been aware of Magicicada cassinii<\/em>, better known as the cicada.<\/p>\n

Although every year a few of these insects emerge from the ground in the eastern United States, it’s their once every 17 years outing that gets all the buzz.\u00a0 And I mean that literally, because their frantic mating hum can reach a deafening 100 decibels \u2013 that’s in the range of a gas mower or passing motorcycle.<\/p>\n

But a professional baby and family photographer in Arlington, VA (Oxana Ware<\/a>) was so inspired by her children’s fascination with the little critters that she began snapping pictures.\u00a0 But she was disappointed in the results because they looked like the ones everyone else was taking.<\/p>\n

Then she noticed that her 4 y\/o son, Ben, loved having the cicadas climb the ladder on his firetruck \u2013 and the lightbulb clicked on.\u00a0 Why not anthropomorphize the little guys, and have them doing human things?<\/p>\n

Well, she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, so let’s enjoy some.<\/p>\n

(I decided to group different ones together in slideshows to create a little story to go along with their posing.)<\/h3>\n

Let’s Get Married<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

If you’re a cicada, and you only show up every 17 years, and have only a couple weeks to molt, mate and die \u2013 you best get busy and find a partner.\u00a0 Of course they want to make it legal, but with a major time-constraint, heading to Las Vegas for a quickie wedding made perfect sense.<\/p>\n

They were even able to get in a little gambling, and enjoyed celebrated their wedding by disco dancing with John Travolta to the cicada’s national anthem “Staying Alive!”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

COVID Vaccine<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

And what better way to ensure staying alive than getting their COVID vaccine ASAP?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Birthday<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

And since cicadas are card-carrying YOLO members (You Only Live Once) \u2013 they know how to throw a great Birthday Party!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Activities of Daily Living<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

But that doesn’t mean they can ignore those ADLs (Activities of Daily Living).\u00a0 Some are\u00a0 pure drudgery, like doing the laundry (they must have know TC in a previous life).\u00a0 But there was also fun stuff – like fishing, graduating, forming a band and even some traveling \u2013 not only on their Harley, but also joining the jet set, now that flying is OK.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Olympics<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

When they learned that this was an Olympic year, they didn’t want to be left out of the fun.\u00a0 They enjoyed archery, pole vaulting, table tennis, the uneven parallel bars and weightlifting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mount Everest<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Some of the braver, heartier cicadas decided they’d follow in Edmund Hillary’s footsteps by taking George “Because It’s There”<\/em><\/strong> Mallory’s advice and climb Mount Everest.<\/p>\n

They had forgone hiring Sherpas, because they doubted they would be able to speak Cicadan \u2013 which turned out to be a big mistake when a major snowstorm hit.\u00a0 But one proud cicada made it to the top to plant the flag!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fourth of July<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

And they are looking forward to celebrating our Fourth of July by enjoying a few brewskis at a barbecue, relaxing at the beach and of course, taking in the fireworks over our Capitol.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxana Ware’s Website:<\/span><\/h2>\n

http:\/\/www.oxanaware.com\/x-brood-adventures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you live in one of the 15 (un)fortunate states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, along with the District of Columbia, you no doubt have been aware of Magicicada cassinii, better known as the cicada. Although every year a few of these insects emerge from the ground in the eastern United States, it’s their once […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}