Monday, September 7, 2009

Spidercorn



A few days ago, I enjoyed some delicious lightly salted, air popped popcorn, as I do from time to time while entertaining myself. I was chomping away without a care in the world when I happened to look down at a handful. I spied a tiny dark spider crawling across one fluffy kernel. I initially freaked out and made sure to kill it swiftly and surely. I've heard that we each consume approximately eight spiders every year without ever knowing it. I thought perhaps I dodged a bullet. Because it was such an awfully small creature, it occurred to me that it may have been an infant spider. As I know from the certainly factual film Arachnaphobia, they aren't born one at a time. Convinced there must be thousands of tiny spiders in my snack, I sifted through the popcorn under strong light to check. I didn't see anymore spiders, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my batch was tainted. The thing is, I was really hungry. And it would have taken a good two or three minutes to make more! I figured if I already eat so many spiders without even knowing it, what's another if I'm not even aware of it? So I finished the bowl and decided that maybe spiders are high in protein?