Brokeback 20 questions

[mvansand76]

...but at least you're honest!

I'm a bad cook too Amanda. 

What? You make the best fried chicken in the whole US. Or so you say.... now I am starting to wonder if this is true...

 

Aww! 

They won't hurt you Kerry! I catch them in a jar and turn them loose outside!

We have those awful recluse spiders here in Indiana, and they are poisonous. Fortunately I have never seen one of those in my house.

Oh Kerry, I hate spiders too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kerry]

 

Aww! 

They won't hurt you Kerry! I catch them in a jar and turn them loose outside!

We have those awful recluse spiders here in Indiana, and they are poisonous. Fortunately I have never seen one of those in my house.

Come on down to Australia, David, and bring your jar with you! But I should warn you, you'd better make that a mighty big jar! That's because we have really huge, ugly, furry spiders down here with such names as the Australian Barking Spider (yes, they do really bark like a dog - big as a bloody Alsatian too!) and the Bird Eating Spider (they are so big and build such powerful webs that they actually catch birds!). There's also the Sydney Funnel-web Spider. It's poison is so toxic, it can kill you within hours! Cringe! Shudder! I'm not making this up!!! (well, maybe the bit about the Alsation . . .)        

I hope I haven't scared you too much, Melissa!   

I hate spiders with a passion! 

[ednbarby]

Kerry, Lureen and LaShawn both went to university.  We don't know where Lureen went - probably to the University of Texas - and we know LaShawn met Randall at an "Aggie" game, and that's Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) University.  We can presume she either went there or went to the rival school in that game.

<--- kinda likes spiders and snakes (or at least doesn't mind them), but not enough to touch them

[David In Indy]

Come on down to Australia, David, and bring your jar with you! But I should warn you, you'd better make that a mighty big jar! That's because we have really huge, ugly, furry spiders down here with such names as the Australian Barking Spider (yes, they do really bark like a dog - big as a bloody Alsatian too!) and the Bird Eating Spider (they are so big and build such powerful webs that they actually catch birds!). There's also the Sydney Funnel-web Spider. It's poison is so toxic, it can kill you within hours! Cringe! Shudder! I'm not making this up!!! (well, maybe the bit about the Alsation . . .)        

I hope I haven't scared you too much, Melissa!   

I hate spiders with a passion! 

Well that's different! 

We don't have spiders that bark or eat birds around here. Ewww. That's disgusting.

I don't know WHAT I would do if something like that came into my house. Yuck! The spiders here are little and cute; most of them are smaller than a large coin.

[Kerry]

Kerry, Lureen and LaShawn both went to university.  We don't know where Lureen went - probably to the University of Texas - and we know LaShawn met Randall at an "Aggie" game, and that's Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) University.  We can presume she either went there or went to the rival school in that game.

<--- kinda likes spiders and snakes (or at least doesn't mind them), but not enough to touch them

Ah, yes, of course, I now remember the conversation between Lureen and LaShawn. I'd forgotten it. I guess my attention was rivetted onto Jack in that scene (and every other scene!)

[Kerry]

Well that's different! 

We don't have spiders that bark or eat birds around here. Ewww. That's disgusting.

I don't know WHAT I would do if something like that came into my house. Yuck! The spiders here are little and cute; most of them are smaller than a large coin.

Hmm, "cute spider"? I love ya dearly, buddy, but I can't bring myself to agree with you on that one, David!  Shudder, shudder, shudder and shudder again!  I guess I really do have a phobia about these god-awful creatures. Just thinking about them makes me wanna barf! We also have little spiders here in Oz, but they ain't cute! Nooooo, sir! Deadly, but not cute! One such, is the little Red Back Spider. It's body is shiny black (no nasty fur!), smaller than your little-finger nail, with a cheerful bright splash of fire-engine red on its back. Don't be fooled into believing it's "cute." The Red Back Spider is related to the American Black Widow Spider and can kill you within hours! Luckily, there are antidotes available for all these spiders now, but once upon a time, if you got bitten, you died!  

[ednbarby]

Living in Tropicopolis, aka suburban South Florida, we get some pretty exotic looking bugs.  Take palmetto bugs.  Please.  Imagine, if you will, a cockroach the size of a small dog.  With wings.  But our spiders, for the most part, are pretty tame - maybe because the geckos keep their population down to dull roar.  I almost never see one, inside or out.

Now, up in Western New York and by a lake, I saw spiders the size of small tarantulas.  Didn't like those guys much.  I also saw a couple of Praying Mantises (Manti?).  Those things will freak you out.  They're about as long as your forearm and look at you with a cocked head like they think they might have met you in the bar the other night but they're not sure.

Most snakes I've ever come across are harmless, too.  But coral snakes live down here and they're deadly.  They always live by salt water, though, and we don't have much by us.  The canals are rife with them, I hear.  Their bite can kill a large dog or a small child.

Kerry, on an entirely different note, I must say you're a boy after my own heart.  It's hard for me to notice Lureen's and LaShawn's conversation in that scene, too - I'm too busy watching Jake brush the ashes off himself and wishing I were that hand of his (o, to be a glove upon that hand...).  But after watching the film about 20 times, it finally registered that the two of them did apparently at least attend college.



 

[Kerry]

Living in Tropicopolis, aka suburban South Florida, we get some pretty exotic looking bugs.  Take palmetto bugs.  Please.  Imagine, if you will, a cockroach the size of a small dog.  With wings.  But our spiders, for the most part, are pretty tame - maybe because the geckos keep their population down to dull roar.  I almost never see one, inside or out.

Now, up in Western New York and by a lake, I saw spiders the size of small tarantulas.  Didn't like those guys much.  I also saw a couple of Praying Mantises (Manti?).  Those things will freak you out.  They're about as long as your forearm and look at you with a cocked head like they think they might have met you in the bar the other night but they're not sure.

Wow, that's a great idea you've given me, Barbara! I sometimes fantasize about relocating to upstate New South Wales when I retire, purchase a small rural holding (5 acres?) with a cute little cottage on it, which I will re-name Cherry Cake Cottage. One of the things that holds me back is the thought of all those mean, nasty ol' spiders in the deep, dark Aussie bush! What an excellent idea it is to introduce a substantial population of cutie-pie little geckos into the area. I love geckos and they would keep those homicidal spiders at bay (not the bird-eating spiders though, but they're mainly in Queensland fortunately!).

You mentioning small tarantulas reminds me - I was driving to work across Sydney Harbour Bridge a couple of weeks ago, doing approx 60kph, in the inside lane, traffic coming straight at me from the other direction, when what should appear from somewhere under the dashboard, but a large Huntsman Spider!!! God only knows how it got inside my car! Spiders are such devious bastards! This has happened before, and because of my phobia, I always carry a fly-swatter in my car, just incase I need to dispatch a spider in my car!!! This Huntsman (they look like small tarantulas) was making a bee-line, at speed,  for the steering-wheel! I had an immediate phobic reaction, panic response, and I could have very easily swerved into the oncoming traffic. Somehow I managed to retain some semblance of control, reached for my trusty fly-swatter, and returned that ugly SOB to his Maker!!! Because it was such a frenzied attack on my part (he was splattered gooood!), I laughed later, thinking about what the car behind me must have thought I was doing!!! 

[David In Indy]

Hmm, "cute spider"? I love ya dearly, buddy, but I can't bring myself to agree with you on that one, David!  Shudder, shudder, shudder and shudder again!  I guess I really do have a phobia about these god-awful creatures. Just thinking about them makes me wanna barf! We also have little spiders here in Oz, but they ain't cute! Nooooo, sir! Deadly, but not cute! One such, is the little Red Back Spider. It's body is shiny black (no nasty fur!), smaller than your little-finger nail, with a cheerful bright splash of fire-engine red on its back. Don't be fooled into believing it's "cute." The Red Back Spider is related to the American Black Widow Spider and can kill you within hours! Luckily, there are antidotes available for all these spiders now, but once upon a time, if you got bitten, you died!  

I once had a pet tarantula when I was a teenager. Her name was Synergy. I called her Sinni. I had her for several years too. I kept her in an empty aquarium, and it was decorated like a desert. Once she escaped out of the tank. She had crawled into my cowboy boot and spun a web in there. She ended up dying of old age. She was very sweet. I was bitten by her a few times, but surprisingly, she wasn't poisonous. When she bit me it felt like a wasp sting. But I was only bit by her during the first few months I owned her. She quickly learned who I was and stopped biting me.

The pet shop told me to feed her live mice or small fish. But I couldn't do that. So I bought dead mice and fish from the shop. The pet shop would freeze the dead mice or fish so they were still very fresh when I brought them home. I would hold them by the tail and drag them around the inside of the aquarium until she pounced on them.

She could jump too! She could jump 6 or 7 feet across the room. I would take her out of her aquarim and let her crawl on my arms. Sometimes she would jump off of me. haha. When I picked her up, she would raise her front legs up. I guess this was her defense position. But like I said, she quit biting me after the first several months. The best way to pick up a tarantula is by the torso.

She was a good spider. 

I don't think they sell tarantulas anymore; at least not in Indiana. I also owned a few pet turtles when I was a kid. I don't think they sell turtles anymore either.

They used to sell baby ducks too. They would dye them different colors for Easter. I always thought that was very cruel, so I never owned a baby duck as a pet.

But I really loved Synergy. If they still sold pet tarantulas, I would probably get another one. They make excellent pets if you are patient with them.


The recluse spiders here in Indiana sound a bit like the Red Back spider you were describing, Kerry. They have a design on their back, and it looks a bit like a violin.









Can you see the "violin" on his back? This is the tell tale sign of the recluse. Indianapolis is on the extreme northern edge of their natural range. There are no recluse spiders 75 miles north of me, but they can be a huge problem here in Indianapolis.





Fortunately I have never seen one in my house.

The bite of a recluse spider is sometimes fatal. Most of the time though, the bite will leave a very nasty wound, especially if it goes untreated.

!!! WARNING - The following pictures of a recluse spider bite are extremely graphic and gruesome!!!

http://images.ask.com/fr?q=Recluse+spider&desturi=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riskindoc.com%2Freculse_spider_bite.html&fm=i&ac=6&ftURI=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.ask.com%2Ffr%3Fq%3DRecluse%2Bspider%26desturi%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.riskindoc.com%252Freculse_spider_bite.html%26imagesrc%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.riskindoc.com%252Fimages%252Fspider_bite_day10.jpg%26thumbsrc%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F65.214.37.88%252Fts%253Ft%253D13556552326878408000%26thumbuselocalisedstatic%3Dfalse%26fn%3Dspider_bite_day10.jpg%26imagewidth%3D320%26imageheight%3D287%26fs%3D21%26f%3D2%26fm%3Di%26ftbURI%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fimages.ask.com%252Fpictures%253Fq%253DRecluse%252Bspider%2526page%253D2&qt=0

[delalluvia]

Yeah, Texas, we got black widow spiders AND brown recluses.   I work on the 4th floor of an office building in a sea of concrete and last summer two women on the same floor as me got bitten by recluses.  The whole building had to be fumigated.  Twice.

I don't particularly care for spiders, but I don't hate them because they do such wonderful things like eat mosquitos.  I just wish they did their spider thing outside of my home rather than in.  I will try to trap them and toss them outside.  Luckily in the city, I don't have much contact with snakes.  But friends of mine do get bitten by rattlers when hunting or - in my favorite scenario - are fishing for bass along the banks in the shade on Caddo Lake, the only 'natural' lake in Texas.  It's on the border with Louisiana and is also something of a swamp.  So there's alligators and the normal fauna of a swamp there. 

Problem is, bass like to be in the shade along the bank.  If it's shady that means there are trees overhead.  Snakes - copperheads and cottonmouths and coral snakes, all poisonous - like to hunt birds in the trees.  And if they finish hunting in one tree and are over the water, they won't climb back down, they just drop into the water and swim back to shore. 

Yeah, my friends carried a shotgun for such occasions as poisonous snakes falling out of the trees and on them or into their boat, but they had to keep in mind that they're in a boat and alligators are in the water as well.

 

That was a sweet spider story David.  She was a good spider.  sniff