Review: A Bug Story

Review: Foxes and Chickens, An Allegory, Review: The Girl Who Smelled Like Cheese,

Review: The Supreme Bean, Review: Politics Shmolitics, Review: Blood Bites

A Bug Story: The True Story of a Man and his Love of Insects

Eight-legged Press

754 Pages

Reviewed by Sally Putterman

Warning. Reading A Bug Story is like being struck by a cataclysm: the earth shakes, your worldview changes, and nothing in your life will ever be the same.  It’s more startling than the first time you read the Bible, or Catch 22, or when that crate of Encyclopedias fell off a truck and landed on your grandmother.  It’s one of those books where, after you finish reading it, you turn back to the first page and start it again, and then when you finish reading it a second time... you go get something to eat... but after that, you read the book a third time, and you keep reading it over and over until one day you look up and find out three months have gone by and your husband has moved out and you no longer have a job and everyone thinks you're crazy.  So what do you do? It doesn’t matter because you still have the book, so you read it again and again and then after about the seventeenth reading, the narrative becomes so ingrained in your mind, you run out and join a cult espousing the views and virtues expressed within the book.  It’s sort of like Ayn Rand, but less self-centered, and with cockroaches.

In Charlotte, Cars Drive Fast in Circles

The Coca Cola 600 was under way this week with many automobiles--this reporter counted at least seven of them--driving at high speeds along a circular track. 

For some reason a crowd of spectators gathered to watch the cars traveling in circles.  This reporter counted 117 people in the crowd, although it was difficult to keep count as many of the people were moving.  Official estimates put the number of attendees at closer to one hundred thousand.  Again, only 117 could be confirmed.

The cars were driven by people.  After the people drove in circles, they continued to  drive around in more circles.  Track officials listed the number of circles or "laps" driven as 200, although this reporter lost track after three.  He then wandered off to find out what Skoal Bandit is.

Skoal Bandit, it turns out, is loose grains of tobacco wrapped up in a pouch, which is then placed between the lip and gum.  People then suck the pouch and spit out the juice.  People are not supposed to swallow the juice, as this reporter found out the hard way.  It made him very sick and caused him to miss the end of the race.  If you know who won the Coca Cola 600, please give him a call.