Back Again

Attention, arachnids: Heed the sign.

Hey hey, loyal readers. I'm back after a short absence. Where have I been? I'll tell you. I've been busy with Quikrete and Raid, working hard to prevent this from happening to me:

ALBANY, Ore. - These guys weren't exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop. What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy's ear — "like Rice Krispies" — ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.
"They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse Courtney said.

One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader's left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear — "like Rice Krispies."

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.

Jesse was given the spiders — now both dead — as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

I have friends who live in Oregon. They're always encouraging me to come visit. Thanks to this story, I think I'll pass on going that way. Ever.

If I were this kid, I'd slug the first wannabe-clever person to come up and say "So let me put a bug in your ear."