WoD – Good Bugs and Bad Bugs

A colorful butterfly fluttering by, as the wind lifts it high into a warm, blue sky.  The sound of crickets, as you fall asleep with the window open on a hot summer evening.  A dragonfly pausing near you hovering in the air, then scooting past your legs, as you walk through a warm field of tall grass…

Some bugs are cute and cuddly, like lady bugs or fireflies.  “Aww, look!  It’s a big red ladybug in our kitchen.  Come look, kids!”  Others are bad, like stink bugs or carpenter ants.  “Eww, there’s two stink bugs in the window sill – get them out of here!”

And then there’s spiders.  Yuck, right?  But wait, not Daddy Long Legs – they’re ok.  When we see them we say, “kids, leave that guy alone – and don’t pull his legs off!  That’s a Daddy Long Legs.  Wow, look how big that one is!”  But a second later we will squash under our heel a regular old house spider.  What gives?  They’re all still spiders, right?

How did some bugs get branded good ones and others bad?  Let’s face it – bugs are bugs, right?  It should be that you either like ’em, or you do not like ’em.  But for some reason, we hate most and kinda like a few…

Thursday:

[I saw this online while browsing for a yiddish word to use today – thought it was funny:]

Inflection, too, is an important aspect to Yiddish.  In this example, the questioner (think: an old Jewish grandmother) is asking whether she should attend a concert being given by a niece.  The meaning of the same sentence changes completely, depending on where the speaker places the emphasis:

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: “After what she did to me?”

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: “What, you’re giving me a lesson in ethics?”

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: I wouldn’t go even if she were giving out free passes!

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: I’m having enough trouble deciding whether it’s worth one.

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: She should be giving out free passes, or the hall will be empty.

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: Did she buy tickets to our daughter’s recital?

I should buy two tickets for her concert?–meaning: You mean, they call what she does a “concert”?