Writing prompt. I think.

Via Huffington Post:

TULSA, Okla. — One of the most deadly spiders in the world has been found in the produce section of a Tulsa grocery store. An employee of Whole Foods Market found the Brazilian Wandering Spider Sunday in bananas from Honduras and managed to catch it in a container.

The spider was given to University of Tulsa Animal Facilities director Terry Childs who said this type of spider kills more people than any other.

Childs said a bite will kill a person in about 25 minutes and while there is an antidote he doesn’t know of any in the Tulsa area.

Spiders often are found in imported produce, and a manager at Whole Foods says the store regularly checks its goods and that’s how the spider was found.

Now, I’m not afraid of spiders, but I am interested in the phobia itself. I watch the movie Arachnophobia quite often.  Of course it’s very serious to have such predators brought into the country. This particular spider is a nasty customer (see this YouTube piece, but beware: not for the faint of heart). In addition to hanging out in bananas in Tulsa, it has been found in England, Holland and Denmark. So who’s to say how many more have made it in undetected? Cue the creepy music.

I’m not afraid of spiders, but I’m no fool, either. If I ever see a spider in the bananas, I will squash it with the nearest deadly vegetable. I think a watermelon would do the trick. Even a musk melon. Or maybe I’d just run. That sounds like a plan, actually.

Cue the scene from Annie Hall where Diane Keaton calls Woody in the middle of the night because there’s a spider in her bathroom. He comes over, grumbling, goes into the bathroom, and then comes out with his hair standing on end. He says something like, you got a spider the size of a ’57 Buick in there.

I think there might be some kind of book in all of this. Modern Lore of the Spider. Or maybe a murder mystery. A produce manager’s revenge.