Scree - May 28, 2011 - Cicadas Again
cicada skins piled on the ground after molting
Cicadas Again
To continue to take advantage of the cicadas ...
Wikipedia has a wealth of information on cicadas. Included on the cicada's page were two sound bites of the cicadas singing. Now to begin with I would not have called that noise singing but I guess to each his own, I am sure it sounds like Frank Sinatra to a female cicada. The sound bites were of the New Zealand cicada and the Greek cicada. The ones that live in our yard sound more like the Greek ones and I don't even speak Greek. I guess that's why their song is only noise to me!
Also of note, Channel 5 had a story about the Peanut Shop in downtown Nashville - they made chocolate covered cicadas! Word spread like crazy and soon the tasty morsels were all gobbled up by daring tasters. Well, the tasters were daring, but the Peanut Shop didn't really serve chocolate covered cicadas, it was a honey roasted pecan. Ha. It's still a good story.
American Fitness Index, 2011
"With support and funding from the WellPoint Foundation, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) launched the ACSM American Fitness IndexTM (AFI) program in 2008 to help communities identify opportunities to improve the health of their residents and expand community assets to better support active, healthy lifestyles." (American Fitness Index - Executive Summary)
Nashville ranked 37 out of 50 in the study with a point value of 42.3. The most fit city, Minneapolis had a 77.2. Other neighboring city scores were: Atlanta - 55.2, Birmingham - 33.6, Memphis - 32.9, and Louisville - 29.0. On pages 68 and 69, the report breaks down the data from Nashville.
Basically, Nashville needs to eat better, eat less, stop smoking, and exercise more. The city needs more venues to buy fresh, affordable food and more parks that promote exercise.
In Minneapolis 16.7% of the land are parks whereas in Nashville 3.4% of the land are parks. Also, 3.1% of Minneapolis walk or bike to work , whereas in Nashville the number is only 1.2%.
Cities that promote healthy living have healthy residents. Programs like Mayor Dean's Walk 100 Miles will help Nashvillians see the benefits of parks and outdoor exercise. Other programs are trying to expand greenways and buy more park lands. A healthy community lifestyle attracts business leaders who understand that healthy employees are better workers. It all works together.