bête noire

in a last ditch effort to ruin my day, the devil sent a long legged spider my way...

it scurried across my face just when i was all relaxed and snuggled in bed. i went "AAAAH!" and swatted it from my cheek to the comforter. then ken grabbed it by one of it's legs, tore into the bathroom like his pants were on fire, and hurled it into the toilet. we laughed and shuddered and had the creepy crawlies for a minute or so. we said things like "can you believe that?! holy crap!!!" and then we felt kind of bad for killing it. it turned out to be just a daddy long legs, which are quite lovely, harmless creatures.* too bad it snuck up on me in the dark. anyway, aside from a few intrusive memories and itchy moments here and there, we were back to snuggling in no time.

i didn't used to personify the darkness, though i have been curious about the notion ever since i saw robert deniro star as the devil in the film "angel heart." i'll never forget the part where he peeled a hard boiled egg with those really nasty fingernails. i wonder what it does to a person to play a character like that.

one quote about the devil that always stuck with me is, "the greatest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist." my brother told me it was charles baudelaire who said that. i haven't read much french poetry to be honest.

anyway, after i wrote that little spider story i looked up "devil" at dictionary.com and learned some very interesting things.
http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/devil
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/devil

the last thing i read gave me chills...

"Talk of the Devil, and he's presently at your elbow" [1666]

picture "alice's devil" borrowed from tips to no devil : http://uk.geocities.com/willhelston/tips.html

*one of my students just told me that daddy long legs are actually the most venomous and fierce spiders of all, but that their fangs can only penetrate human skin between our toes and fingers. and if they bite you, you could die! yikes! ... from the research i've done online, it seems that may just be a legend stemming from the fact that daddy longlegs can kill a black widow.