Odds and Sods...

America Today!

Because I live most of my 'real' life on-line I tend to live with my friends in many different countries but I have few blog readers, e-mailers and Facebook contacts who live in the UK.  As a result I know nothing about UK politics (upon which it was once my job to be an expert),  a tiny bit about politics in some other countries,  and lots about American politics.  But the problem with American politics is knowing what is real and what is just a joke.  OK, a sick joke.  Like this -

"To the Missouri State Senate, women aren't people. They aren't American citizens. Pharmacists in Missouri can refuse to sell them birth control pills. It's about belief. If your pharmacist believes you, a woman, shouldn't be using birth control, he can refuse to sell you the drugs. It's about his belief. He has a right in Missouri, according to the Senate, to see to it that you behave as he thinks you should. This is what it means to be a woman in America today? We're back to this?" - Anne Rice

 Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta

  Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta - 'Model Making Mischief' [c.1885]

The Goddess Wiki tells us "Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (Rome 1841 – 1920) was a Spanish realist painter.  He was born in Rome, but after 1860 he lived mostly in Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet, and eventually established a studio. His remarkable technical ability made him a highly successful portrait and genre painter in a Salon style.  As an artist of international standing he commanded premium prices for his work. His $2,000 fee for painting Secretary Root from life moved the scale for official portraits beyond the traditional modest progressions and into 20th-century levels."

I like his style because so many of his portraits suggest the model has a sense of mischief.

Detail from a portrait of Aline Masson, 1876

Dama con sombrero

Helen, and other arachnophobes, don't read the rest....

 I follow Wirral Newsbeat on Facebook.  It's a really good site for keeping up-to-date with what is happening in my area.  But occasionally it posts some utter rubbish.  It has just posted a picture of a spider and said it is a False Widow Spider, that it has recently invaded The Wirral, and is dangerous.

What a load of rubbish. Firstly, they have been around over 100 years.  The false widow spiders that have been blamed for a small spate of bites in the UK are Steatoda nobilis, which arrived in the country from Madeira and the Canary Islands in some bananas in 1879.  (We know the exact year because they had their little passports stamped.)

Secondly,  the poor innocent chap pictured on the Facebook page is not a Steatoda species.  So it's a false false widow.  Wirral resident Sarah Ravenscroft commented "This poor innocent spider has now been wrongly accused, he'll have to go into hiding now or his life will be made a misery!"

 

Thirdly, they will only bite if threatened, and generally live in cracks or holes, for example within walls or garden sheds.

Fourthly, whilst the occasional widow has killed people...

no incy wincy spider has ever done so in this country.


This species does, however, carry a poison to which you may have a reaction if you are one of the few unlucky people to be allergic to it.  But then bees, wasps and peanuts also carry such a poison.
 

Fifthly, in the 1970s I was bitten by one that was hidden in some bananas and which felt threatened when I went to eat it!  The base of my thumb swelled up and it was painful for about twelve hours.  That was it.  No more than the sort of bite one can get from many other British invertebrates and certainly a lot less unpleasant than being bitten by a cleg or horse-fly.

Sarah Ravenscroft said "Wonder how many people will ring in sick with the excuse 'Sorry I can't come in I've been attacked by a false widow'".

P.S. If you do get stung by a bee (far more likely) treat the sting with baking soda, aloe vera, honey, cider vinegar, onions or egg yolk.