Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Hanging Around

There's a rumor going around that women don't like spiders.  At least, that's what i read at The Chubby Chatterbox.

Well, actually, i am an arachnophile.  In this house, we go out of our way to protect spiders, make sure we keep the friendly kind around so they can keep the bug population down, and Little Girl pointed out a great web in our palm plant the other day.





While i'm not sure what kind of spider made that, it's a really fabulous design. 


This next picture may be a bit scary if you don't like spiders. which is why i didn't lead off with it.  It's not a good shot, but it's a spider that's been taxidermied, in a plastic bag.  The girls argue over whose property it is.


SpiderBro'


They named him SpiderBro' and he measures 8 inches from front leg tip to back leg tip.  He is often used to spook other people, but around here, no one thinks twice when he shows up in all sorts of places.


No one thinks twice before rescuing a spider and taking it outdoors, either.  We like our 8 legged friends, and let them hang around and do their thing, which is catching the nasty flies and skeeters.




Today is:

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset (through the 27th)

Birthday of Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala -- Tonga

Citizenship Day -- US

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 7, Women (sponsored by We, the World)

Feast of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fundacion de Melilla -- ML, Spain

Kentucky Bourbon Festival -- Bardstown, KY, US (self explanatory; through Sunday)

National Apple Dumpling Day

National Heroes Day -- Angola

Niketeria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Opening of Parliament -- Netherlands (holiday in The Hague)related observance
     Prinsjesdag -- Netherlands  (technically translates "Prince's Day;" the day Parliament opens and the reigning sovereign, now Queen Beatrix, gives the Speech from the Throne and the Minister of Finance proposes next year's budget)

Operation Market Garden Remembrance -- Netherlands

Pledge Across America Day -- US (beginning of Constitution Week)

Return of Kelp-Koli Celebration -- Fairy Calendar (under duress, of course)

Stigmata of St. Francis' Day

St. Hildegard von Bingen's Day (author of treatises on natural healing and the first musical composer whose biography is known)

St. Lambert's Day (Patron of Middelaar, Netherlands)

VFW Ladies Auxiliary Day -- anniversary of founding in 1914


Anniversary Today:

The Constitution of the United States is signed, 1787
American Professional Football League (later the NFL) founded (a/k/a the Swallowing Up of Weekends), 1920



Birthdays Today:

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, 1951
John Ritter, 1948
Ken Kesey, 1935
Anne Bancroft, 1931
Roddy McDowall, 1928
Hank Williams Sr., 1923
Jerry Colonna, 1904
John Willard Marriot, 1900
Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, 1730



Today in History:

The Battle of Thermopylae, fought between 300 Spartans, led by their king, Leonidas, and the Achaemenid Empire begins, BC480
Arabs conquer Alexandria, and destroy its library for the last time, 642
Netherland sailors discover Mauritus, 1598
Massachusetts Bay Colony gets a new charter, 1691
Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, 1776
US Constitution is adopted by the Philadelphia convention, 1787
Sprinkler system for extinguishing fires is patented by Phillip W. Pratt, 1872
The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality, 1908
The first transcontinental airplane flight, from New York to Pasadena, is completed after 82 hours 4 minutes, 1911
The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards
of 2,500 people, the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, 1928
The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives, 1949
Television is first broadcast in Australia, 1956
Malaysia joins the United Nations, 1957
Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations, 1974
The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA, 1976
The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt, 1978
Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America, 1983
Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations, 1991
The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet, 1991
Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years, 2006

8 comments:

  1. you need to run a boot camp as I have your first client here.
    she's TERRIFIED of the TINIEST arachnid!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most of my spiders are too small to see, but they leave lots of "spider spit" in all the corners of the house which is a hard as cement to remove!

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  3. Hubby and I don't mind spiders as long as they stay outdoors.

    We have taken our fair share of critters outside too.

    Have a terrific day. ☺

    ReplyDelete
  4. Spiders?! I like to photograph them and their webs. But honestly, I do not like them in the house. It's a kind of a rule I guess and it works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are you saying you have eight inch spiders living in your area? Please cancel my vacation reservation with you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My wife has no problem with spiders either. It's wasps she hates. Me, I am an amateur entomologist and yet I'm not keen on Earwigs. I wonder why we have these phobias / dislikes?
    Hathor was the Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. So I guess it's a sort of Mother's Day today!

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  7. I like spiders OUTSIDE...so I gently coax them OUT when found in the house. I get quite perturbed also when I find them in MY bed!!! Sometimes they are not so gently sent outdoors.

    ReplyDelete

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