Dear Otus,
Yesterday on Good Morning America, Lara Spencer had some fun at Arkansas' expense. She played that YouTube video that has gone viral -- the one with the terrified visitors in Pine Bluff. The way she went on and on, you'd think Lara had never seen mosquitoes in her life.
What's up with people coming to Arkansas and being shocked at our native flowers and fawns?
-- Lorem Ipsum,
DeWitt
Dear Lorem,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you, although I'm almost certain you mean "flora and fauna," not "flowers and fawns."
Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers, and Fauna is the feminine counterpart to Fanus, a Roman woodland deity usually identified with Pan.
Together, they are Latin terms that refer to the native plants and animals of a certain region. Flowers and fawns would restrict that to the reproductive structure found in angiosperms, and baby deer in the first year of life.
In addition, we need to give Lara Spencer (pronounced LAIR-uh) a break. The affable 48-year-old TV personality (real name Lara Christine Von Seelen) doesn't actually come up with the items for her daily "Pop News" GMA segments, especially the "Trending Now" videos that end each one.
There is an army of ABC staff members whose sole job is to make the on-air personalities, especially George Stephanopoulos, look good, if not taller. George and Robin Roberts are the ones with gravitas and cachet on GMA. Lara is there to take care of the lighter stuff.
The mosquito video currently making the rounds is certainly among the lighter stuff.
When I checked YouTube at 10:03 Friday morning, the viral video had tallied 14,334,075 views -- more than half of them since Wednesday when GMA aired the 58-second bowdlerized version where the Innbilt family from Mankato, Minn. (pop. 41,044), encounters their first swarm of Arkansas Delta mosquitoes.
The family members -- Knut, Kirstin and the kiddies, Kristoffer and Karin, along with their chiweenie, Mr. Barky -- were on vacation last weekend and headed to Destin, Fla., when they decided to detour from Isle of Lula Casino Resort Hotel in Mississippi to visit the Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff.
Their purpose was intended to be educational, but the lesson they learned probably wasn't what they had in mind.
For those who haven't seen the video, it shows the family entering the outdoor humidity pod exhibit (there's an actual pod held down by netting). In a few seconds, there are blood-curdling screams and coarse language.
Mr. Barkey, who is half chihuahua and half dachshund and weighs 7 pounds soaking wet, is seen floating about 3 feet in the air, tail wagging and his leash trailing on the ground.
The pooch had stumbled too close to the stagnant environmental pond in front of the center and stirred up a nest of Arkansas Delta mosquitoes (Psorophora ciliata arkansia) newly sprung from the larval stage. Several dozen of the insects had latched onto Mr. Barkey and taken flight.
The super-size mega skitters, also known as gallinippers, are a common sight in the Arkansas Delta in summer, especially after heavy rains. They can be 120 times bigger than typical Asian tiger mosquitoes and are frequently hunted with bird shot.
A frying pan full of the succulent critters is considered a delicacy. Unfortunately, the gallinipper was hunted almost to extinction in the early 20th century before being protected by law until 1964.
As seen in the video, Mr. Barkey thought it was great sport, but the Innbilts were hysterical. They were wailing and throwing rocks at the bugs. Kirstin was sheltering the kids as if they were next on the menu.
As native Arkansans know, gallinippers rarely attack humans. The last reported incident was in 1954 near Dumas and only resulted in superficial wounds.
The video ends when an alert Delta Center employee waded into the shallow pond and fetched Mr. Barkey from midair. The skeeters scattered, their wings making little iridescent rainbow patterns in the dappled sunlight.
If you missed Good Morning America, you can see the hilarious video at youtube.com/watch?v=hvsJX7AztTY.
Lara, a native of ritzy Long Island, N.Y., where bugs are not allowed, ended her segment with a rather uncalled for snarky quip about the infamous Arkansas ticks and chiggers.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that no matter how cute they are as pupae, mosquitoes do not make good house pets.
Disclaimer
Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of humorous fabrication
appears every Saturday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Disclaimer: Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of 👉 humorous fabrication 👈 appears every Saturday.
HomeStyle on 07/29/2017