It wasn’t the pandemic I heard people talking about on LBI last week. Not masks, social distancing, or the ongoing shortage of Lysol spray. It wasn’t debates about going back to school in-person or virtually. Nor was it the 2020 election on which this dear Republic’s future may depend. Nope; it was the flies.

For two full days (and at least parts of two others) during the last week of August, if you weren’t being swarmed and bitten by the small black flies that came in on a Tuesday with the hot westerly winds, then you certainly heard people talking…