Nico's Neuland

On my way home for lunch the question popped into my head why so many adults (myself included) were/are so enchanted by Harry Potter.

I don't know why you care about Harry, but to me, he speaks to the child in me that in fifth grade, when I was eleven, just like Harry at the beginning of the series, looked at her mother and her brother one day and concluded that she must have been adopted because she couldn't understand how the people she called family could make her feel so insignificant and unwanted. To me, Harry represents the idea of rescue, the hope that our real family is somewhere out there. And he reminds me that the family doesn't necessarily choose the child. At some point the child also needs to choose the family.

I work for a chamber of commerce in a small town in Florida and we get strange questions and rude callers all the time, but some just leave me puzzled - like the lady yesterday.

Me: "ABC Chamber of Commerce, my name is Nico1908. How may I help you?"

Lady: "Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee."

Silence.


That was it. She didn't introduce herself, she didn't ask me anything, she just said "Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee".

I decided to be nice to her and assume that she needed the phone number for that chamber, I even looked it up on the internet for her, but afterwards I was wondering how some people manage to get through life barely able to communicate.

I've often wondered if not introducing yourself when calling an office is an American thing. My boss does it all the time.

Imagine my surprise when I found THIS little critter munching away on my Iris today:

 (picture copied from the Wikipedia entry on this insect)

This striking caterpillar is called Saddleback caterpillar and is the larval stage of a rather unstriking moth (whose picture & description can be found here).

Touching the freaky thing is not advisable: it stings and can cause a bad rash (there are several comments about encounters with saddlebacks on Dave's Garden).

ETA: Tuesday morning damage report: about half an Iris leaf has been consumed. I have no idea when the caterpillar will turn into a pupa, but I hope it's soon! :)