See The Facts

It was at those moments you appreciated the way the encyclopaedia was bound. Standing in front of the collection in the font hallway. Viewing the stamped and embossed alphabet on the spine. Selecting the correct volume from the Micropaedia section or, if a more detailed subject, then the Macropaedia section. You lifted it from the shelf, the weight dropped off the shelf and into your hands. You carried the heavy tome in both hands, down the length of the hallway and into the kitchen. Eyeing off the person you were engaged in difference of opinion with and then. Bang! Placed the volume onto the table. You couldn’t help but smirk a little. If you knew you were right. The ‘weight of knowledge’ sounded loudly on the table, even if you tried to place it carefully. Our mother knew instantly when we were showing off to the other, simply by how we placed the volume down.

Of course if you were smart, before you took it down the hallway to the kitchen, you would set the volume down on the floor in front of the bookshelf and rapidly locate the article and scan it first. In case you were wrong. Calling out that you were just looking for the volume. And f you found you were wrong and had to change your view. That gave you the time to walk down the hallway and format a small alternative answer to what you were discussing. Suggesting that you had thought more about it, as you were getting the encyclopaedia, and recalled some other piece of knowledge associated with your argument. If you were clever. If you were fast at scanning articles, but more importantly it came down to how well you could locate the article itself. Alphabetised. Spelling was the most crucial element. If your spelling wasn’t up to standard. Forget trying that trick.

So the books had been used the night before. Arachnid. Right there in the first volume of the Micropaedia. I had reviewed all I could. Scanned several sections, rather than a detailed read. It would take too long to include much of the Macropaedia section, which went on for some pages (about twenty or so). Did you know scorpions were in the Arachnid family? A lot of the knowledge can distract. One thing leads to another and when researching you really have to stay focused. Right. Spiders nests. Spiders molt. They shed their skins. They have courtship (not as vicious in all cases as the praying mantis head biting version) but certainly with some being fatal. The caring of the young (ahah! This was what I was after) varies in different instances. And of course, the fascinating part to any young person. The bit where the spiders inject digestive fluids into their prey and later suck the liquefied remains out. That was definitely going in the talk. A jar full of hundreds of digestive fluid, injecting, liquefied remains sucking, spiders. This was going to be a great talk. This was going to be a highlight of my year.

(Continued tomorrow)