Polka-dotus beetlicus.
[Update — it has been brought to my attention that this creature is some iteration of Virginia’s most maligned invasive species, the spotted lantern fly.]
Polka-dot beetle!!
Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan
A college buddy took this photo in Baltimore. He said this guy reminded him of me.
Hey, I’ll take it. This dude is living his best life.
This just in — earwigs are yucky.
We now return to our regularly-scheduled program — already in progress.
Critterwatch 2026, Continued.
Critters spotted:
- house finches
- robins
- ravens (they are seriously large birds, people, holy shit)
- sparrows (the kind with the striped faces, passer domesticus)
- northern mockingbirds (the kind with those little white racing stripes on the wings)
- the giant, creepy-ass turkey vultures are back! (Or, at least one was.)
- giant grasshoppers! (Probably Melanoplus differentialis.)
- ugh, earwigs
- green lacewings, which are actually really pretty insects
“Vulture,” Antoine-Louis Barye, 19th Century
Giant Grasshopper!!!
For a minute, I thought this was the “Beginning of the End!”
Nah, it was just a larger differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis).
Allison’s Haiku
A portraiture of
heterochromia are
your rococo eyes.
Photo credit: Socrasal, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Today’s portmanteau:
Here at the Nolan household, we take our neologisms very seriously — especially the portmanteaus.
There is an individual important to us with a penchant for improvising some rather baroque cusswords — and often a string of them. (Holy shit.)
Let it be known that baroque cussin’ will hereafter be known as “baroqussin’.” And thata string of baroqusses shall be know as a “baroqcusstring.”
Throwback Thursday: the opening credits to “Archie Bunker’s Place” (1979-1983)
My new best friend is a black cat who follows me around.
She sort of squeaks at me, because she is elderly.
I keep wishing I could bring her home. That would be a new level of coolness for horror movie fandom. Imagine doing a late night double feature with a black cat as a watch buddy?
Throwback Thursday: the Opening and Closing Credits for “All in the Family” (1971 – 1979)
“All in the Family” (1971 – 1979) was an institution when I grew up. Even if you were a really young kid, you knew it was a pretty big part of the zeitgeist.
Both the opening and closing credits were filmed in Glendale, Queens. It probably didn’t look very different from Woodhaven, Queens, where I was a baby — though I obviously remember very little of that.
One of the show’s fans actually visited Glendale last year and found the house where the Bunkers were supposed to have lived. (The house’s fictional location was Astoria.) The guy posted a pretty neat video of his visit; you can find it right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knUS6X36gkE
The neighborhood actually looks a lot nicer (and greener!) than it did back in the 1970’s. But I guess that’s probably true about a lot of places around New York City.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 