Doodlebug
Richelle Raridon
I put together a video explaining step-by-step how to install doodlebug on which ever build you have. Also, I rebuilt the plugin for Rhino 6 and illustrator CC 2019. Both of which can be found here on my blog:
doodlebug-grasshopper-and-illustrator-workflow
I put together a video explaining step-by-step how to install doodlebug on which ever build you have. Also, I rebuilt the plugin for Rhino 6 and illustrator CC 2019. Both of which can be found here on my blog:
And in the Houston of the seventies, the correct name for those little critters was doodlebugs. Ant-lions? We just called them ant-lions. Why was the Houston (and New Orleans and East Texas) answer singled out as incorrect, when it was equally true that not all sodas were Cokes, despite many people calling them that across the South? And was it not equally incorrect to call a baby ant-lion a doodlebug? It was a slap in the face to my region. The Gulf Coast is ignored and slighted enough without some two-bit Internet linguist critiquing the backyard wildlife nomenclature of my people.
And now vindication is ours, doodlebug fans. That annoying little quiz has long since vanished from the web, with several much more authoritative, and less bossy, dialect tests going up in its place, including this one by linguist Bert Vaux, perhaps the most detailed and authoritative (certainly the most popular) online American dialect quiz of all time. (And one with an uncanny ability to pinpoint the geographic origins of those who take it, thanks in part to an algorithm-based heat-map generated by collaborator Josh Katz.)
Ant lions, or "doodlebugs" have impressive mandibles, are adept at camouflage, and are very successful at trapping and ambushing their prey. "Field Notes" takes a closer look at these fascinating insects.
September 26 was a fascinating "Before and After" meeting at the Historical Society of Phillipston. The newly-acquired antique doodlebug made its debut alongside a 1926 Model T Ford, the model from which it was created. (If you look at the front of each vehicle, you can see they are the same.)
Historical Society President Mike Flye said that when he and his dad, Don Flye, learned that a Petersham collector was selling the doodlebug that originally had been an important piece of equipment for the Phillipston Highway Department, they knew they had to find a way for it to return to town.
After the purchase was made, they contacted Historical Society Member Mike Como, who is an antique car expert, and he reported at the meeting, "It's a very unusual piece, quite an ingenious creation. The man who transformed the 1926 car to a doodlebug cleverly attached a cutter bar that formerly would have been pulled by a horse. It's the first doodlebug I've seen with an attachment."
The doodlebug was built in the 1930s. It mowed the grass and brush along the sides of the dirt roads in town and was used until the 50s when modern-day equipment became available. It was sold in 1960, still in good driving condition as the new owner drove it from Phillipston to its new home in Barre. Como said, "It would have been a slow rough ride on those solid rubber tires."
However, despite no longer making appearances in the Main Parade, it made appearances at the My Macy's Holiday Parade in Seattle until 2015, when it was retired. The doodlebug was stored at the warehouse until the Parade ended in 2019, Where it was transferred back to the float warehouse where it resides today. The Doodlebug has yet to make another public appearance.
Mixed local trains, which carried freight, had either a passenger car or caboose on the rear end. They gave passengers a lift to the end of the line. Even after doodlebugs were phased out, mixed trains continued to provide this kind of service for several years.
The Hutchinson to Ponca City route was the more heavily traveled of the two local routes. And for some Kay County residents, it was their first experience riding a train. At the age of 10, Janie McGaha rode the doodlebug by herself from her home near Deer Creek to Blackwell.
The doodlebug pit trap is an engineering marvel. The sides of the conical pit are angled so that with just a slight disturbance from an ant or other small invertebrate, part of the trap will avalanche, carrying the prey to the bottom of the pit, where the powerful jaws of the doodlebug eagerly await. If the prey tries to escape by climbing out of the trap, the doodlebug flicks sand or grit into the air to knock it back down and to further weaken the side of the pit to create another mini avalanche for a second try at capturing its next meal.
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