donald j haarmann wrote:

"jg"


"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
.............
Have you never performed the Dance of Fear and Loathing
as you frantically slapped at your body and bellowed
'Where'sthespider?Where'sthespider?Where'sthespide r?' to any and all
onlookers?

...all onlookers? - they're releasing 'em in your garage, T, bringing
deckchairs just to watch the show

---------
Your toooooooooooo late.
The "Tarantella" goes back to 1374! If not earlier.

http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3tartla.htm

--
donald j haarmann - independently dubious

Well, IMHO, we here in Oz ought to instigate an Eriophorella in honour of that
deadly and dangerous foe, the Garden Orb Weaver. I reckon Tarantulas have
*nuthin'* on the cold, vicelike constriction felt around the heart of an
_Eriophora_ victim as s/he realises the inexorability of being confronted by the
owner of the web that just stuck fast in their face and hair! Be dubious no
longer! The cardiac complications of Intimate Contact with a Garden Orb Weaver
have to be experienced to be believed!

You *must* concede the point here! When have you *ever* walked innocently into
an _Eriophora_ web and -

- walked calmly out again?

Ppbblfft! Do you *really* want me to believe you weren't suddenly afflicted by a
compulsion to dance and flap your arms about? To kick your legs up and stomp
your feet? To whirl about, shaking and waving?

Just because it's older, doesn't mean the Tarantella is any more indicative of
Tarantular Deadliness than an Eriophorella might be of Orb Weaver Worry!

Even the Sydney Funnel Web pales in comparison, I feel! When you have eyeball to
eyeballs contact with a Funnel Web in your garden, you know perfectly well what
you're faced with. Times eight! You evacuate forthwith and then you leave the
vicinity.

Walk into an Orb Weaver web and it's the Unknown that undoes one. Who knows
where the spider is? Could be in your hair. Could be in your ear. Could be in
the bush/tree/post from which the web was strung. Who knows? Could be walking up
your leg with designs on biting a hunk out of your - er - body. Are you
complacent enough, indeed sanguine enough to just *stand* there and *not* do the
Dance of Fear and Loathing?

I rest my case!
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

PS. Seriously, though. It really *ought* to be called an Eriophorella - it's a
perfect description of what one does! ;-D