Who doesn't hate flies? Useless, disease-carrying insects, it is hard to think of a worst pest than the common housefly (Musca domestica). In the summer, when we are opening our doors and windows and coming and going more than in the wintertime, houseflies come into their own.
Flies, of the order diptera, have been around since the Cenozoic era, some 65 million years ago. They begin reproducing within just 36 hours of emerging from the pupa, which kind of redefines prepubescent sex. Fly copulation takes between a few seconds to a couple of minutes, or something akin to normal sex between married human adults.
Following sex, the female fly can lay approximately 500 eggs in several batches of 75-150. This produces lots and lots of baby flies, aka maggots, which you may spot in places like your garbage can the day before garbage pickup.
As flies will feed on dead flesh, they have become associated throughout the years with death. The great American poet Emily Dickinson recognized this in her poem titled “I heard a fly buzz when I died.”
Even the simple word F L Y has many meanings. For instance, it can be a noun, as in *He hit a fly to centerfield* (diptera say-hey-kid). Or it can be a verb intransitive, as in *Come fly with me* (diptera sinatraca). Or it might be a verb transitive, as in *Pilots fly long distances* (diptera delta).
The word also has come to appear in many common phrases. Examples might include: fly the coop/escape (dipteral houdinia), or fly high/be successful (dipteral billgatesia), or fly off the handle/lose one's temper (dipteral trumpia).
Now, given the length of this post, I think I'll fly…
Hello HenryM.
Another great concept ---can anyone join in?
fly-by-night / unreliable (diptara conartist)
zip-fly / trouser fastener (diptera penissnagger)
Flyover/ one road over another ( diptera spaggetti)
flytip/ / dump rubbish (diptera offload)
fly-half / rugby standoff (diptera catcher)
fly in the ointment/ irritator (diptera setback)
Best wishes
Bill
My friends and I wrote the lyrics to a song years ago while we were tracking in the marshes gathering Punks ...
There's a skitter on my Peter , knock it off.
There's a skeeter on my Peter, knock it off ...
There)s a dozen on my cousin ..I can hear those suckers buzzin,there's a skeeter on my Peter knock it off !
ONE MORE TIME !,,
ReallyHenry ? Punks are those tall grasses that grow in marshes with the long fuzzy top. You pull them out leaving the fuzzy top and apiece of the stalk . When they are dried out you light the tip and mmmmm, does that smell good and keeps the skeeters away !
Thanks for the explanation about 'punks'. I was not aware of this term before and over here in the UK I think we call these plants bullrushes. 'Punks' are more likely to be young rebellious people - often with a fuzzy top !
I wonder if that's how they were so called?
Best wishes
Bill
You're correct Bill. Nowadays they call the guys that wear their jeans below their butts ..Punks . I just call them idiots !
a long time ago I was told that I'm rebellious.... I always considered it just curious... I don't like to be told what I cannot do , I prefer to step out of the boxes to see what's there . Kind of like when you see a sign that says Do Not Enter ...ya gotta know what's on the other side. No, that's not rebellious...just curious.perhaps I need to get out a proper dictionary !!!LOL.
Hello HenryM.
I think I need to thank you once again for providing me with another concept to stimulate those 'little grey-cells' into rhyming mode. I have no more admiration for flies than your account suggests, but my approach to them has always been to pit my physical skill against their agility and try to catch them by hand, sometimes from a stationary position and sometimes out of mid-air. 'If' I manage to catch them (which has become less often as I get older and slower, I release them to the great outdoors where, hopefully they retreat elswhere and do not return for another round.
Letting them go is not just based on the abhorrent thought of squashing them in my own hand, but the ever present dilemma/choice of being kind or unkind to something weaker and less capable of moral thought than I think I should be. For me, killing something so small and defenceless would be the epitome of the dominance and subjugation that I have labelled as 'bullying' within so many of my rhymes.
So, here goes with my latest attempt to capture the concept in verse:
Best wishes
Bill
KIND OR UNKIND CHOICES:
(KILLING THINGS)
An unkind act might be to kill
a living thing against its will,
so maybe we should explore why
us humans try to justify.
Is killing just an act of hate,
which sends the victim to its fate?
or is it something more complex
triggering our cerebral cortex?
Does the victim first annoy?
or do the killers just enjoy
the act of killing for its sake
which means there is no moral break?
Is killing an activity
devoid of sensitivity,
where killers don't need to reflect
because they never had respect?
When humans kill and call it sport,
do they do so, without much thought?
If this be so, then could it be
they're plagued with imbecility?
Or is it something primitive
uncontrolled and instinctive?
If this be so, we boast no more
than brains akin to dinosaurs.
Why is it some people won't kill,
maintaining it's a bitter pill,
which they would never even try
to rationalise or justify?
Why does it often spring to mind,
where certain people are so kind,
they do not try to make things dead? -
“They wouldn't harm a fly.” - it's said.
B. Withers 2020
