“Well, the front name I goes by nowadays is Dick,” said he, “and as I ain’t got no partic’ler use for no more name, jes’ call me Dick. […] ”

a profusion of insects, which produced a continuous thrum

No offense or anything, but this soup tastes a little jizzy. You'd better not have put any special ingredients in here.

The main factors that determine the location of the boundaries for the region of existence of a phase and thus its transition to another phase seem to be its ability or unability to incorporate water.