Murky Press
Picture

Clearing the fog

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

8/1/2021

What’s in a Name?

7 Comments

Read Now
 
PictureThe creature in question. (Well, one of many: there are actually thousands of firefly species. Or lightning-bug species. Or whatever.)
​David Hoefer of Louisville, Ky., the co-editor of The Last Resort, explores our relationship with a beloved emblem of summer. If you would like to submit a post to ​Clearing the Fog, please contact us here.

They dot warm summer nights like phosphorescent punctuation marks. They carry bioluminescent chemicals in their abdomens that produce a cold light, more like LEDs than Edison incandescents, to attract potential mates. Little children (and adults behaving like little children) enjoy chasing after them, catching them in hand and watching them glow on release. (I’ve been known to do this after a couple of beers.)

What am I talking about? Lightning bugs, of course. Or fireflies. Or glow worms. Well, which is it?
​
It turns out that it’s all three, though the first two names are now more common than the third. But it also turns out that what you call these creatures is, in part, dependent on the section of the country from which you hail. The following map recently appeared in an article on the Rochesterfirst.com Web site:

Picture
This makes sense to me. I’ve called these beetles both names at different times but lean toward lightning bug. No surprise there, as Kentucky is smack dab at the center of lightning-bug territory. But I grew up in North Syracuse, New York, at the northern edge of the same region, and called them lightning bugs up there, too. 

The article goes on to note an interesting coincidence. Firefly is more common in parts of the country that record more wildfires. Lightning bug is more typical of areas with higher frequency lightning strikes. The author correctly states that this is not proof of causation. But it is definitely intriguing.

We get no help from John Goodlett on this topic. The bugs are never mentioned in The Last Resort. (Pud always was a plant guy, first and foremost.)

What to call an insect may seem like a purely academic question, of little import to anyone other than linguists or entomologists. That notion would be mistaken, however. Sectional differences are an integral part of American history, with serious and sometimes dire consequences. These many differences—a true, organic form of diversity rather than the often forced and phony stuff that we’re being inundated with now—are gradually being rung out of our lives by the growing homogeneity of corporate-state culture. I like lightning bug but am okay with firefly as well. I hope distinctions like this one, and thousands of others, stick around for a while longer.
​

Share

7 Comments
Jason Whitaker
8/1/2021 06:06:01 pm

Soda or pop or "Coke"??

Reply
Sallie Showalter
8/1/2021 07:46:03 pm

"Coke!" says the girl who was raised in Baltimore by two central Kentucky natives.

Reply
Joseph Anthony
8/2/2021 02:09:46 pm

There's something deeply distrustful about a fellow calling a lightning bug a firefly. 🤣

Reply
David Hoefer
8/2/2021 09:17:38 pm

I think one of those regional distinctions maybe just cropped up!

Reply
Bob Patrick
8/3/2021 10:37:14 pm

Pop when I was a kid. Soda was something put in mixed drinks, except for Cream Soda, which was always "Cream Soda."

Reply
Sallie Showalter
8/4/2021 09:47:59 am

And that's as a kid growing up in Iowa, right? Your reference to "mixed drinks" made me realize, perhaps for the first time, that "soft drinks"--the other way I typically reference these things--is simply a way to differentiate from "hard drinks," aka "hard liquor." Which brings us full circle to the original Coke recipe... No wonder some of us are addicted to this stuff!

Reply
David Hoefer
8/4/2021 11:30:36 am

I was raised in the Yankee North and we always called soft drinks sodas. (I still do today.) The weird thing is that the complete phrase is "soda pop," so the regional variation seems to be on how you shorten it in casual conversation. It's amazing how many pleasant childhood memories I have that are associated, usually in a minor way, with sodas. Soft drinks used to be for drinking; now that I don't touch them much anymore, they're chiefly for nostalgia.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details
    Picture

    Author

    Between the debilitating effects of age and the 24-hour crush of mind-bending news, my brain is frequently in a fog. Nonetheless. I'll occasionally try to sweep aside the ashy gray matter and shed some light on what's going on at Murky Press. Perhaps together we can also gain a little insight into how we can better use words to organize and clarify the world around us.

    Cheers! 
    Sallie Showalter, Murky Press 

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017

    Categories

    All
    Current Events
    Family
    Grief
    History
    Marketing
    Nature
    Next Train Out
    Publishing
    The Last Resort
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact