In honor of tarantula mating season, a reflection on eight-legged wonders:

My older brother has always commanded my admiration. But my well-hidden admiration only goes so far. He is scared of spiders. Scared spit less by them. My brother is stronger, faster, smarter, more cultured, more trendy and yet, hopelessly arachnophobic. Yes indeed, my older brother is scared by an insect that is roughly 10,000 times smaller than himself. And for this reason alone, I am glad that spiders scamper the earth.

This is a fun article about arachnids in the “anecdotes” section at thebackpacker.com, which I’m taking a huge liking to all the sudden.