"What's wrong with her? Why isn't she screaming?"

[Shalom]

most of the hairy 'pillars are nasty. Tent and gypsy caterpillars -- right into the lake to feed the fish, since they were invasive.

I first encountered gypsy moths and their caterpillars as a kid in summer camp. I didn't know at the time how devastating to agriculture they could be; they just looked cute and fuzzy. (The moths too, not just the larvae. First time I'd ever seen a bug with fur. The red and blue spots on the sides of the caterpillars were an added touch of elegance.) I'd pick up the caterpillars and let them walk on my hands, even petting them.

Then I discovered, later in the summer, that as the caterpillars got older, those little hairs that make up that fuzz got loose, and they'd slip between the lines in your fingerprints and embed themselves right into the skin of your fingertips. God damn, that was painful. Never touched them again.

A few years later, there was an outbreak of them in Brooklyn, where they hadn't been seen before. We all had to wind double-sided sticky tape around our trees for a while, which seemed to minimize the damage by catching the critters halfway up the trunks.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I like spiders I'd prefer they didn't crawl on me (unless they're either REALLY small or REALLY big like a tarantula), and I would kill a poisonous spider if it posed a direct threat. Otherwise they're kinda fascinating.

Things I don't like so much: Fire ants (for obvious reasons), silverfish (eww), palmetto bugs (American cockroaches...they're huge and they can FLY!!! GAHHH!!)...and possibly the worst of all, centipedes. I loathe centipedes!!

[Food Lady]

I like spiders I'd prefer they didn't crawl on me (unless they're either REALLY small or REALLY big like a tarantula), and I would kill a poisonous spider if it posed a direct threat. Otherwise they're kinda fascinating. Things I don't like so much: Fire ants (for obvious reasons), silverfish (eww), palmetto bugs (American cockroaches...they're huge and they can FLY!!! GAHHH!!)...and possibly the worst of all, centipedes. I loathe centipedes!!

I could've written this post. Today I got to hold my neighbor's teeny turtle; it was small enough to fit in my hand. Squee of the highest order. Now I have to get one.

[wolfie]

Or, "Why doesn't she behave more like a female?"

Thank you, Kitten in the Box, for inspiring me to share.

As some of you may realize, I'm an "assistant manager" at one of the major theme parks in the South.

I reach down to grab it and it hops on my shoe. As I begin to move out the door the lizard starts climbing my leg! I wrap my skirt around my leg before the lizard clibms any higher, and I hobble towards the door.

From the peanut gallery comes a rallying cry: "What's wrong with her? Why isn't she screaming!!!" in this panicked/horrified voice.

In keeping with the theme park atmosphere, an appropriate comment would have been "The girl in the story kissed a frog and it turned into a prince - I wonder what this lizard will turn out to be".

So long as it wasn't a "lot lizard", but those tend to go after men.