SILKEN THREADS

I walked around the neighborhood tonight. I took a thank-you note to my across-the-street neighbor, Cindy, who brought us some Cincinnati chili for our dinner. I'm not failing, Phil is not laid up, she just is a sharer.

Cincinnati chili is a hot meat sauce--no beans--served over spaghetti noodles. Then it can be topped with shredded cheese--that's Cincinnati chili, 3-way. 4-way is topped with cheese and chopped onions. 5-way has hot kidney beans on top of the spaghetti, topped by chili, cheese and onions. Oyster crackers are served with it. We had just the spaghetti and chili--I guess that was the naked version--2-way, and it was fantastic. I can't find her exact recipe on the Internet but will put it on my cookbook site when I do. It's different. Spicy. It even has chocolate and cinnamon in it. I think hot dogs topped with Cincinnati chili would be a serious competitor for J-Dawg.

Okay, back to the "thread" of this post. I was walking around the neighborhood and went to two other houses after Cindy's. At both houses I ran into silken spider threads. At one house I ran into three. Not webs, just single threads. What goes? Were the spiders just taking a late night stroll and it was easier to swing from lamppost to bush or from porch pillar to porch pillar instead of walking? Were they out visiting relatives or were they shopping for dinner?

And--perish the thought--was a spider still attached to one of the threads that I ran into? Did I pick him up as a passenger? Is he crawling up my back this very minute?

I'm closing this post now. I'm going to stand up and slap myself all over until I'm red and sweaty. It will be preferable to feeling eight hairy legs, crawling.