1. A family was sleeping at night. The little boy felt a bite on his hand when sleeping. Next day, he showed it to his parents who simply brushed it aside saying it might be a mosquito. The family did not investigate the cause. The following morning all of them were found dead, possibly killed when asleep. The lead investigator on looking in the attic found some cobwebs, and on digging further found the DNA of the victims on the cellar spider hiding in a corner. Hence it is important to kill every spider you come across your house if you want to keep your family safe.
2. A vivacious and energetic singer was a rising star in the opera world. One hot summer night, she left the windows open. When asleep in the dark, something crawled into her ear. Next morning she couldn't hear any ambient sounds, so she rushed to Urgent care. Doctors took x-ray of her ear and found out an Earwig which had walked into her ear canal and had damaged her ear drums.
3. A surfer surfing at the Santa Monica beach suddenly felt a sharp pain in his achilles tendon. He swimmed towards the beach and asked other beachgoers to call 911. Looking at the area where he got stung he observed red, whiplike marks on the skin. Luckily a quick thinking gentleman on seeing this victim asked him to stay still, dropped his pants and peed on the wound. The victim suddenly felt instant relief. Even the emergency responders commended the pee guy on his quick action on dealing with the sting area which could have escalated to seizures otherwise.
All of these stories either depict how terrible I am at writing fiction or how I have nothing better to do after finishing all the seasons of Stranger Things.
The point I am making is, if you were afraid of any of the antagonists in the story i.e. spiders, earwigs or jellyfish, you would be more likely to pass around this rumor without reasoning with yourself since you were already anxious about it.
All rumors rely on the same fuel - anxiety about death and disaster.
Below is a group of Red-winged Blackbirds reminding me about our beginning days of the covid season. Wow, all this build up just for this, such a loser.
Below is a group of Red-winged Blackbirds reminding me about our beginning days of the covid season. Wow, all this build up just for this, such a loser.
And below is an up close look at the bird staying true to its common name - Red-winged Blackbird. Could someone have come up with a more vanilla name?
This would be like calling the American White Pelican - Big white bird.
Mind you it's just the males who have this appearance. Females have a brown plumage and you could be forgiven to not be able to identify at first.
Speaking of rumors: one that causes most people to burn their house down in California thinking they are going to be bitten by the deadly Brown Recluse spider is the innocent Yellow sac spider. This is because most people do not want to invest the time to look the spider in its eyes and tell it how beautiful it is. "Get out of my way, you weirdo" it screamed.
Even though most of us put all spiders in the same group, they are not. There are two major groups or orders of spiders we would come across. Mygalomorphs and true spiders. Mygalomorphs contain all the XL-spiders like Tarantula and other trapdoor spiders. True spiders on the other hand are all the other spiders you will(or wish you didn't) see in your daily life.
What's the difference between the two you ask? Well, they say Mygalomorphs are primitive and true spiders are more evolved.
For starters, these more evolved spiders when invited to dinner, don't start to eat till the host has taken the first bite of their dinner. Also if you look closely at how they swing their fangs, that would give you another clue.
And below is me provoking a true spider to show me how it would swing its fangs.
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