The comparative hardiness of human beings [Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge]

Published: July 31, 2007, 2:57 pm

I just killed a wasp. I hate those things. I have no particular fear or loathing of snakes or even alligators, and the one time I came across a scorpion I (carefully) played with it for a while before dispatching it -- hey, it was a novelty. But stinging insects kick my primal smashing and swatting instincts into high gear. It was not as easy as I believe it should have been to take out this wispy-waisted bastard. I swatted him but good with a hardcover book, then twice more for good measure. He didn't fly off but walked gamely in a straight line across the floor at a rate of about aninch per second. I finally took careof him in earnest with a pair of scissors. You know, for all of humanity's exalted, chosen status, we're pretty easy organisms to kill. Can you imagine if people possessed the relative resilience of insects? You could bring loaded minivans down on us with frightening force and all it would do would make us angry, like something out of a vampire flick or Stenley Ipkus'

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