The wonderfully funny US public radio news quiz program "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" had a question this week on what a recent poll showed to be the biggest phobia of British citizens. The answer was spiders, beating out things like terrorism and death in general. Me, I've always found them to be interesting litle beasties, the vast majority of which, of course, are completely harmless to humans.

I had a very talented orb-weaver living on my porch all summer. It was amazing to watch her construct her web every evening, a creature with a brain about the size of a pencil point who was able to trace the same complex geometrical design every night with singular resolve.