Some of your may know that one of the other activities I work on around and away from Stony Brook is writing poetry. (Good thing I work in a creative writing dept.) Earlier this year, Harvard Review Online accepted one of my poems to featured on its webpage. It was posted on June 20. Here’s a link to it:
http://harvardreview.fas.harvard.edu/
Originally sent to some friends on Sept 27, 2013:
Just when you think your having a run-of-the-mill kinda day, you catch a black widow spider. It popped out from inside a bunch of red grapes I was washing for a reading reception. I had already rinsed them pretty well, but I decided to submerge the grapes in a container of water for good measure. After I poured the water off, my little friend appeared on top of the bunch.
It had very interesting stripes on the top of its abdomen, so caught it in a snack-sized ziplock bag to look up later. The geek in me still lives. The colleague in the kitchen with me at the time started to tease me that I had captured the infamous BWS, to which I brushed aside his attempt at humor with chuckle and a, “Give me a break.”
Cell phones do come in handy when you’re trying to determine if the spider you’re holding captive is one with venom 15 times more deadly than a rattlesnake’s. As the very wet spider slowly circled inside the plastic baggie, no doubt wondering how it got into this fine mess, my friend and I found a photo that looked just like our bug.
Then we flipped it over and looked at its underside.
Let me be the first to tell you, the distinctive red hour glass the BWS is know for, is just that. The feeling we both suddenly had was like the spider looking back at us was saying, “Hello! Yeah, it’s me. Now, are you going to let me go?”
I didn’t want to kill it, but couldn’t let it go, either. About that venom thing: BWSs are so small — with a body about the size of baby pea — that the amount of venom delivered in a bite is enough to be very painful, but not deadly unless you have an allergic reaction. Still, I didn’t want to take any chances. After a few telephone calls, the campus facilities exterminator, who just happened to be on campus, came and took the bagged spider away.
People have different reactions to this tale: my husband Carl thought it was very cool and suggested I make a shellacked paper weight out the spider; one of my graduate students nearly fainted mere mention of the encounter; but most others had various degrees of the “yuck” factor. I, myself, am still in the “look what I found” mode. But I am glad that I was overly obsessive with my fruit washing and flushed our guest before the reception.
Now, that would have been fun. Not.
Here’s a photo from the Internet what the Northern black widow spider looks like in case you’re interested: http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/58569301 .
Remember — pea-sized.
Since I’m a newbie at this personal webpage thing, I will pass along some of the past meanderings until I come up with fresh material beyond, “Ate two eggs for breakfast this morning – yum!”