It is now safe to say that the 17-year Brood X cicadas are long gone. They emerged from their nests, copulated, buzzed about, and died. I'm sad to see them go. Rather, I'm sad to hear them disappear. At the height of their existence in the trees around DC, the cicadas sounded like one of those rain sticks that you buy on a trip to Central America. It really was a lovely hum.

Now what do we have to look forward to this summer? Pandamania.

These giant, polyurethane pandas that have cropped up around the city are the follow-up to the 2002 city art project "Party Animals." The latter was a group of elephants and donkeys painted to look like people, cartoon characters, or what have you. The party animals were loved by some, hated by others. And, as an old article from the Howard University newspaper points out, some were even beaten with a crowbar.

Now I think a city-wide art project is good: good for the artists who create the pandas, good for the tourists who seem to love them, and good for the cause that's helped when the art is auctioned off. But, most of the entries are pretty crappy.

I feel like a curmudgeon now that I've researched the particular panda that I hate. The "Playing with Paint" panda sucks; couldn't the teacher of the elementary kids who designed this have offered up more ideas?

On the other hand, I do like the Shakespeare company's panda. There are also a few others that are quite nice, including "Pandalusia" (located at Connecticut and Calvert Street), which is dressed as a matador and "Bearra Cotta Warrior" (at 1100 Connecticut Ave.), which is a monochrome rendering of one of the terra cotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty.

Still, there are too many of these giant, plastic monstrosities to really feel affection for them. The worst of all is a panda named "Bear to the Bone," which is painted completely brown, wearing jeans and an "I Heart DC" t-shirt. Ummm...the brown paint makes this look like a regular bear. And, I think that there's copyright infringment on the "I Heart NY" slogan.

Come to think of it, the whole Pandamania and Party Animal phenomena is a rip off of New York's Cowparade in 2000. Why does Washington always have to copy what New York does?

If DC's going to steal anything from NY, how about a few pizza parlors and kosher bakeries?