So, Mel and I are riding to work on BART this morning, and we are talking about the wedding arrangements. Mel cutely asks “Why isn’t my dress here yet?” Being too smart for my own good, I teasingly say “At this very minute they are boiling alive the silkworms that made your silk, and they will turn that your dress soon. If you listen very carefully, with your inner ear, you can hear their screams.” She looked at me with a mildly horrified and puzzled look. So, I had to take it a step further and explain just how silk is produced, and why silkworms are unique in that they don’t fuse their cocoon thread on each spin which makes their cocoons ‘unwindable’, and that the silk moth eats its way out of the cocoon when it matures so they boil the cocoons to kill the caterpillars. She looked thoughtful, and then said she may never be able to wear silk again. If I had just kept my mouth shut Mel wouldn’t have decided not to wear silk lingerie anymore. Stupid brain.
-Chris
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