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Journalism: used to be another name for Trivial Pursuit

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  • Journalism: used to be another name for Trivial Pursuit

    This is definitely not about an SC.

    When I worked at a weekly community newspaper a decade ago, many of the townspeople seemed to see us as a sort of walking encyclopedia ... or perhaps a pre-Google Google. Need some information? Call your local paper! Since I love trivia and trivia games, I enjoyed this part of the job.

    And since this was before all these nice little papers got chewed up by giant dino-corporations -- big lumbering body, tiny little brain -- we had enough staff (four whole people in the editorial department!! -- that we could take the time to look this stuff up for people. OK, end of rant ...

    One day I get a call from a nice little old lady. She's all upset. It's late fall. It's cold. Very cold. And just that day she'd spotted ... wait for it ... a poor little caterpillar crawling up the exterior wall of her house.

    Her: "I don't know what to do! He's going to freeze to death out there! Should I bring him in, do you think??"
    Me: (momentarily thrown for a loop) "Um ... I don't know ... tell you what, let me see what I can find out and I'll get back to you ..."

    So I called an expert on bugs at a provincial university. After he stopped laughing, he advised me to let the nice little old lady know that if she took the poor caterpillar into her house, yes, it would spin a cocoon -- but eventually, of course, it would do what such things normally do and then she would be stuck with a butterfly -- or, more likely, a moth -- until the weather warmed up enough for her to let it out. He said if the caterpillar was stupid enough to hang around until it froze, well, that was natural selection for you.

    Of course, I didn't include that last bit when I called her back. I did, however, let her know that whatever it morphed into would be her "guest" until spring came. She lost most of her enthusiasm for the project at that point. I also fudged things a bit and assured her the expert was positive the caterpillar would find shelter before the winter set in.

    I hope she had a good life. She deserved it. I mean really, how many people worry about bugs??

  • #2
    Quoth Pixilated View Post
    I hope she had a good life. She deserved it. I mean really, how many people worry about bugs??
    My mother worries about bugs, and about this time of year she will go to enormous lengths to avoid disturbing the web of any writing spider that has happened to set up housekeeping in the yard.

    She also worries about snakes, and got upset when she heard that I'd had to kill a snake (with a brick, while wearing a tie) at the hotel where I worked.

    "You know it probably wasn't poisonous," she said, "You didn't have to kill the poor thing!"
    Drive it like it's a county car.

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    • #3
      woolly bear caterpillars can spend two years in caterpillar stage, they simply hibernate, usually close to buildings.
      Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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      • #4
        Sweet old lady, but thats totally funny. She didnt stop to think that it will turn into something lol.

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        • #5
          Quoth Lvl_9_Gazebo View Post
          My mother worries about bugs, and about this time of year she will go to enormous lengths to avoid disturbing the web of any writing spider that has happened to set up housekeeping in the yard.

          She also worries about snakes, and got upset when she heard that I'd had to kill a snake (with a brick, while wearing a tie) at the hotel where I worked.

          "You know it probably wasn't poisonous," she said, "You didn't have to kill the poor thing!"
          Bless your mom, LOL. My take on spiders is, if they're outside, I leave them alone; if they're inside, they are dead! Snakes I don't mind at all (provided they're not poisonous!)

          Quoth BlaqueKatt View Post
          woolly bear caterpillars can spend two years in caterpillar stage, they simply hibernate, usually close to buildings.
          Wish I'd known that at the time; I'm sure it would've made her feel better about leaving it outside! (I wasn't sure what kind it was, but still ...)

          Quoth Moirae View Post
          Sweet old lady, but thats totally funny. She didnt stop to think that it will turn into something lol.
          Nope. But her heart was in the right place, LOL.

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          • #6
            Quoth Pixilated View Post
            Since I love trivia and trivia games
            I mean really, how many people worry about bugs??
            If you're really into trivia, then you should know that butterflies are not bugs...

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            • #7
              Quoth draco664 View Post
              If you're really into trivia, then you should know that butterflies are not bugs...
              Well, now, that depends on which definition you're using, doesn't it?

              ^-.-^
              Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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              • #8

                Okay, maybe my trivia knowledge isn't quite as extensive as I'd like to think ...

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                • #9
                  Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
                  Well, now, that depends on which definition you're using, doesn't it?

                  ^-.-^
                  Quoth Pixilated View Post

                  Okay, maybe my trivia knowledge isn't quite as extensive as I'd like to think ...
                  By scientific definition, a 'bug' is an insect with biting and sucking mouth parts.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth draco664 View Post
                    By scientific definition, a 'bug' is an insect with biting and sucking mouth parts.

                    EWWWWWW!!

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