The Post, whose market is at the epicenter of the Brood X emergence of 17-year cicadas, has certainly raised the bar for intelligent, informative, imaginative, and interesting general-audience coverage of an ecological event. The Post has deployed many writers from many sections of the newspaper to cover this total-immersion experience. Science writer David Brown wrote a cool piece (May 3, 2004) about theories of cicada evolution -- why their behavior has allowed them to survive ice ages during the last few million years, and why the broods have evolved with periods (e.g., 17-year, 13-year, 7-year) which are prime numbers. The Food Section writers offer recipes and cook-off coverage (we did not make this up). The Style writers have written about how it places you by generation and how to keep it from ruining June weddings. The Web edition offers streaming video of a cicada emerging. The sprawl writers report that suburban growth has been good for cicadas, replacing cleared farmland with patchy trees. And the business department has figured out how to make money from it with ads about cicada t-shirts, netting, and RVs. It makes us think there may be hope for environmental journalism if it connects with people's daily fears and passions, awe and excitement. (Eek! Get it off me!) The coverage is all viewable from a single specials page: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/specials/cicadas/.