"dgk" wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

Waterbugs (American Cockroach) can get pretty big, but 3-4 inches
would be too big for them. They do seem larger though, since they're
just so digusting. Ech.

I've just read about studies that show that the more people fear or are
disgusted by something, the larger it seems to them. However, in NYC,
vermin really grow to unusual sizes.

Now I've thoroughly grossed myself out looking for the biggest cockroach in
NYC.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84727393@N00/4235110666/

That's apparently a brand new species, according to DNA testing:

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientis...s_new_spec.php

We get one or two (they seem to travel in
pairs!) every few months. They come up from the shower drain I think.
Luckily, one of my cats specializes in removing the wings from
waterbugs. Then she carries it around in her mouth making a very
interesting vocalization, sort of like Errrh Errh Errh. I hear that
noise and I can be pretty sure that Marlo has a bug. Eventually it
ends up dead somewhere.

There's a reason cats and dogs have come with humans wherever they went in
the world. (-:

--
Bobby G.

"Doug" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:19:16 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"dgk" wrote in message
.. .

That oily small body of water is the Flushing River, cleaned up a bit
now but probably still polluted enough to mutate a giant rat.

There's more than a little irony in the name "Flushing River."


Good Point g !!!!

I spent a lot of time near there at Shea Stadium and the old World's Fair
Grounds. I recently saw a program about earthquakes that said that area of
NYC could be devastated because it's all reclaimed ground. So much of the
West Side of Manhattan has been "built up" on garbage that it actually
constricts the flow of the Hudson River. Anybody remember the billboard
that was shaped like a tractor-trailer and all lit up? It was one of my
favorite NYC landmarks.

--
Bobby G.