We Can Dance If We Want To

Day 296: "We can dance if we want to / We can leave your friends behind / 'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance / Well, they're no friends of mine." That was what I thought when I saw this grasshopper waving at me from the sidewalk. The words, of course, are from "The Safety Dance," a Men Without Hats pop song my younger readers probably won't recognize. The lyrics are an excursion into the surreal, not quite nonsense but definitely not unintelligible, promising levels of hidden meaning which invite the listener to theorize from their own perspective. Me, I just think they're silly. That brings us 'round to my motto for life: The world needs more silly. Go dance with a grasshopper. It'll do you a world of good.
 

Thanks to the entomologists at BugGuide.net, I now know that this is a Crackling Forest Grasshopper, Trimerotropis verruculata suffusa.

Waldo On The Rocks

Day 340: If Waldo was sitting on your hand, you'd probably describe him as being brown, but once he's in his own element, his patterns and coloration mimic warm grey earthtones and shadows amazingly well. However, when he opens his wings and flies, broad bands of yellow may make you think he's a butterfly.

I've seen more grasshoppers this year than any time in the last decade. When I was young, we would collect them by the dozen, but these days, it's rare that I see more than three or four all summer. I wonder if they are truly in decline, or if their range has simply shifted in response to climate change? Many plants and critters are moving north.