When I was 10, my parents took me to see Rhode Island. Not in the usual sense, you understand; for my father, a trip was not about what kind of fun we could have at the destination, or even "the fun of getting there." No. It was a chance for him to show off his vast store of trivial knowledge.

Did you know that because of the way the shoreline runs, every person in Rhode Island lives within a 30-minute drive of either Narragansett Bay, or the Atlantic Ocean? Or that despite being the smallest state in the Union, it has the longest name? ("The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.") Or that it was named by the Dutch explorer, Adrian Block, who called it Roodt Eylandt ("Red Island") in reference to the red clay on the shoreline?

My father knew. He went out of his way to make sure that I in turn also knew it. And when you're 10 years old, the last thing you want to do is spend your summer answering Twenty Questions with your father.

Because when you're 10, you know what's cool ... and what isn't.

And the World's Smallest anything is, to a kid, just not cool.

Oddly enough, Rhode Island ("and Providence Plantations," I can hear my father correcting me) may be the Smallest State in the Union, but it also happens to be the home to something quite remarkable: the Largest Bug in America.

The bug in question lives on the roof of New England Pest Control in Providence (off of Interstate-95 at Exit 19). It's a gigantic blue termite a full 58 feet long -- which makes it a full 928 times larger than a real termite -- crouching on top of the building, waiting it seems to pounce on any unsuspecting passersby. The huge blue creature, legs splayed in anticipation of movement, waits overhead like some prehistoric monster, something a T-rex would have gone after for lunch.

Now, to a kid, this is cool. When you're 10 years old, you know what is and isn't cool. State's names? Old Dutch explorers? How long a shoreline is? No. No way you think those things are cool when you're only 10 years old. No, at that age, you know exactly what is cool: bugs.

And not just bugs ... but giant bugs!

And not just giant -- but the world's largest!

This summer, I took my 10-year-old son to see his grandfather in Pawtucket ("birthplace of the GiJoe," he would intone to me every time we passed through). But I made a side trip first, getting off I-95 at Exit 19 and drove over to New England Pest Control and stopped in the shadow of a huge, blue, 58-foot-long termite.

Because I know what a 10-year-old will think is cool.

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