a cricket chirps 72x /min. @ 60˚ F

“Hikers without a thermometer in the backcountry can estimate local
temperature by counting cricket chirps. A cricket chirps 72 times per minute
at 60 degrees F. For every 4 chirps more than that, add 1 degree F. For
every 4 chirps less than 72, subtract 1 degree. You can also arrive at the
same result by counting the chirps in 14 seconds, and adding 40. Problem
with these methods is that you must only be counting the chirps of a single
cricket.”

“or maybe not.”

“It was keeping me awake so I found it and killed it. Now what?”

“Great news, Tilt. Now all we gotta do is cull a single cricket out of the herd...”

“All thos damn crickets sound alike!”

“that sounds like species profiling, tilt. the cricket anti-defamation league would like to have a word with you.”

“crickets are tiny grasshopper-wannabes, who in turn are locust-wannabes, and locusts are responsible for a great many plagues of biblical proportions. the connection is quite clear. all crickets should be required to be finger-printed and an fbi file kept on each one, as part of the woodland security initiative.”

“and who hasnt entertained the notion that crickets are sending coded messages to each other in the chirrups? 72 chirrups per minute? pahh! its deceptively simple. they WANT you to think its about weather, but its really a sinister plot.”

“If you stepped on the cricket whose chirps you were counting, that would be a problem.”

“we can get Adventurist to do it. His hearing is hypersensitive at night”

“I hear them chirping right now in my pet spider's cage :)”

“LOL you guys!!”

“It's called sonar.....”

“What if your house is set at 69* and the two dozen crickets don't chirp at all?!?!?!? Seriously, my daughter's science project had me buying two dozen crickets. She hasn't started her hypothesis yet, but we got the crickets. I thought I'd be going nuts but these crickets don't make a sound. Any explainations??

PS YES, the crickets are still alive! :oP”

“mix a little Southern Comfort into their feed - they will be soon chirping their little butts off”

“I think I'll mix a little Southern Comfort and do a little chirping myself! ;o) I'm going out tonight! Wooohoo!”

“have fun on your date (?)”

“i think you ARE going nuts from the silence, sunshine”

“Maybe they've got laryngitis?”