Upon entering L1 diapause, RNA polymerase II quickly accumulates and pauses at promoter regions, and this accumulation was speculated to stop transcription and facilitate the immediate reinitiation of gene expression when food becomes available (2). Previous studies showed that the release of postdocking calcium-regulated dense-core vesicles, the insulin receptor (InsR) pathway, the AMPK pathway, and protein chaperones are required for the long-term survival of starved L1 worms (2–4). However, when newly hatched L1 worms encounter an environment with no food, developmental programs arrest and the worm enters L1 diapause. The presented results indicate that interactions between multiple miRNAs and likely a large number of their mRNA targets in multiple pathways regulate the response to starvation-induced L1 diapause. And we need to take seriously that, just as people’s literary diet matters, so does their ludic diet. In fact I still have a ton to say, about play anxiety and devaluation of play, which I’ll have to put into separate posts over the next few days.