8/21/2005

Bad Nemo


This is a Golden Silk or Banana Spider. It is a bad nemo, which not exactly the opposite of a bad omen. It just happens backwards. For instance, I had already suffered through a headache caused by a single Harvey Wall Banger when I saw this spider. "Ahhh, thanks for reminding me bad nemo." (Also, I just learned this morning from my good friend The History Channel that the number 666 in Revelations actually referred to letters of an ancient alphabet. Historians translated the number to the name Nemo Cesar, historic persecutor of the Christians.)

Good Omen


"Red toad at night, interesting sight. Red toad in the morning, you must have fallen asleep outside last night." I went out to a bar with my sister, her boyfriend, and my niece last night. It shares something in common with many bars across the country, its name -- County Line Bar. About half of the other county line bars I've been to, across several different states, are usually on County Line Road. I didn't expect the atmosphere of this bar to remind me of Appalachia, but it did. People from 18 to 80 shot pool, drank beer, watched drag racing on ESPN, and danced to the music of the band. A window into a culture that is concurrent throughout the rural communities of America.