Weird Things in my Apartment
Read that in the voice that announces Pigs In Spaaace... well, if you like. I did. I'm not sure why.
Yes, boys and girls, it's weird things in my apartment, of which there are a few, and where better to start than with a scorpion brooch? Not so weird, you think? What if I said it was a real, live (well, dead at this point) scorpion dipped in gold? Or gold paint, more likely, because I didn't pay very much for it.
Are we qualifying for weird yet?
This particular scorpion, which is... oh, about four or five centimetres long, to give an idea of scale, actually has a bit of a history. I've had it for a fairly long time, and I got it at a trade show at Klondike Days, which used to be Edmonton's annual summer fair. I say used to be, because a few years ago they changed the name to Capital Ex for no apparent reason. I suppose it made sense to them, but nobody else really liked it so recently they put the name up to a vote. Edmontonians decided on K Days, I understand, which used to be the nickname of Klondike Days but now will be the official title. I wonder what they'll vote for next? They've had X and K. Maybe it's time for Q to have a turn.
Anyway, one of the non-midway selling points of Alphabet Days used to be -- and may be still, but I haven't been in a long time so I wouldn't know -- an international trade fair. Every year they'd invite vendors from a selected country to display and sell their wares. Some countries went for prestige items to show off what the nation was capable of. Stupid move at a fair, where people usually just want cheap souvenirs. The more successful countries were the ones that went for interesting inexpensive stuff that a person wasn't likely to find in Edmonton otherwise.
The scorpion's fair featured one of those countries. Thailand. Lots of neat little trinkets, and I looked at a lot of them until I got to the Infamous Booth of Gold-Dipping. It had gold-dipped just about everything. Flowers, leaves, scorpions...
Scorpions. Ohhh yeah.
I was drawn to them instantly. The lady at the booth, who by then had been working for a few days, looked at me oggling them and said "You must be a scorpio". Why yes, yes I am. How did you know? Unsurprisingly, I guess, it turned out that the only people in Edmonton (at the trade show, anyway) who weren't instantly disgusted by the thought of a small, gold-dipped invertebrate were the ones born between October 23rd and November 21st.
I bought one, of course. And it didn't just sit.
It was a pain to wear it as a pin, so I used the loop you can see under the head and wore it on a chain instead. I didn't get too many stares, oddly enough, because at that time I was working on my degree and in a zoology department no one really bats an eye at people wearing or collecting various animal parts.
Not as ghoulish as it sounds, honestly. You just need to see it in context.
The scorpion also went to all of my exams with me and sat on my desk. I don't believe in good luck charms so it wouldn't have been a disaster if I'd forgot it or anything. It was just habit. Good company, too. It never knew any answers, though, being dead and all. And gold-dipped. And a scorpion.
Sharp-eyed viewers may notice that the left arm (not the correct technical term, but shut up. I'm a mammalogist, not a scorpionologist) is glued on. The joint got flexible fairly early on, and the whole thing eventually fell off. Yay, superglue. Sharp-eyed viewers may also notice a cameo appearance by one of my hairs, which I didn't notice at the time I took the photo. If this silly series continues, you'll notice loads of guest hair appearances, unfortunately. My hair has a knack for guest photo appearances, kind of like the butt-end of the chihuahua we had growing up.
For those of my two fans who know my brother, see if he remembers all the half-a dog pictures we have...
I so need to get back to work at this point. No computer time for me tomorrow, but I'll see if I can't make a habit of posting a little more regularly next week. Of course, the last time I promised that I disappeared for even longer than usual, so grain of salt and all that. Posting silliness... now.
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