Bob Bittner's frozen, sinusoidal cricket

[Dan.Strassberg]

I just got through listening to Bob and Donna's marathon LTAR (the one
and only broadcast of the show in 2007, I believe). I am puzzled and
intrigued by the sound effect that ran through the entire
broadcast--the second part without Donna as well as the first part
with her. Bob must possess one of the world's few (nearly) frozen
sinusoidal crickets. I think everyone knows that the rate at which a
cricket chirps is directly proportional to the ambient temperature. A
cricket that chirps only once every five or ten seconds would thus
seem to be in danger of freezing to death. Well, Bob's cricket chirps
at that rate (more or less) and is unusual in another way as well. He
(or she) chirps what sounds like a pure sinusoid at I'd guess about 1
kHz in two closely spaced bursts--the first maybe 200 msec long, the
second maybe half that. There is also some indication that the poor
little fellow's energy was flagging during the 90-minute program
because his chirps started out very loud and were less so--though
still clearly audible--by the end of the program.

It's supposed to be bad luck to kill a cricket and I have
corroborating anecdotal evidence: I once worked for a nice guy named
Charlie Smith who killed a cricket (Fred) that had invaded our offices
in Framingham. Five years or so later, Charlie dropped dead of a heart
attack while out for an early-morning jog. So I would not recommend to
Bob that he kill this cricket--assuming that he can locate it. But
capturing it and taking it outside to reacquaint it with the fresh air
on Concord Ave (if that's where the program was taped) is recommended.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367