Is this The End? That is, is this the end of Cherry’s latest (miss)adventure? This past week saw Honest Ernest watching Cherry get into her truck to drive home after a full day’s labor. As he walked towards the music hall building—pesticide tank on his back—Ernet continued to fantasize about his illicit love for the married Violet Cheshire, supported by his knight errant’s pursuit of virtue. In this case, gassing a bunch of bats.
But as he prepared to lance his foes, a bright spotlight manned by a shadowy figure caught him unawares. Turns out it was Cherry’s brother, Dirk the Huge, who was there at Cherry’s request to intercept Honest Ernest. Assisted by his own trusty wild hogs, Dirk did not have to bellow, overtly threaten, or physically assault the cowed Ernest. Like Don Corleone, Dirk gave Ernest an offer he couldn’t refuse, which put “CANCELED!” to his chivalric ambitions.
This is the point in the story where it collapsed into Alice’s Wonderland of confusion, with Honest Ernest too confused or fearful to move and the bats heading out for their nightly dinner call. So, it sure looks like the ending of the story, or at least, of the main plot of the story. But we would normally return to Mark’s ongoing story, except that it appeared that the cave rescue adventure also ended. That means we might see a week of Mark and Cherry going on another one of their expurgated “nature” walks as they share their experiences and await a call from Bill Ellis. And it will be high time that Mark started earning money for the family once again!
Anymore “cave shrimp” jokes? Okay, then. What’s in a name? Or names? Why don’t we just keep it simple and refer to this insect as “Rhaphidophoridae.” Then we won’t be confused by all of its cute, if vague, aliases. The general consensus is that Rhaphidophoridae are not endangered; don’t make good pets for your kids; have little, if any, value outside of being occasional food for bats, spiders, and mice; and are mostly considered pests if they wind up in your house. Getting rid of them can be problematic on your own.
