Word: altinho
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When the first crickets appeared in Altinho in early October, no one thought much of it. After all, they were probably attracted by new mercury vapor lamps in the main square. Besides, far worse problems bedeviled the poor farming town of 4,500 in Brazil's barren Northeast, 100 miles from Recife, most notably a searing drought that had destroyed two harvests in the past three years...
Mayor Julio Rodrigues used his meager municipal funds to send two DDT sprayers through the town. The spray made some people vomit, but the crickets "just licked it off and kept on coming," said Schoolteacher Mariestela Barros. Some Altinhos thought the plague was a sign that God was displeased with long hair, miniskirts, rock music and the decrease in churchgoing among Altinho's youth. But Dona Nina Lemos, another of the town's schoolteachers, questioned that notion. She wondered: "If God were going to punish clothing styles, wouldn't he send a plague...
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