Bedbugs are back with a vengeance here in New York City, no doubt causing an upswing in panicked insomnia among people who were warned by their parents, albeit jokingly, in singsong pre-sleep rituals as kids, not to let them bite. No one's sleeping tight. The only thing snug as a bug in a rug are the bugs themselves.

Is this surge a harbinger of more horrors? If I knock wood, will I stir up termites? What's next to creep out of that woodwork? Locusts? Will the killer bees finally ascend? Will polio limp back onto the scene?

Dare I ask?