The caterpillar question.

[pauraque_bk]

[Poll #565589]

Comments

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I accidentally ate a small slug in a salad once. It was at an outdoor barbecue and it looked like a sliver of mushroom in the twilight.

Catching a bug in my food before I eat it doesn't usually freak me out. Unless it's a cockroach or a housefly, because those seem "dirty" to me.

[pauraque]

Slugs are upsetting. They spread slime everywhere. And they keep coming into my house.

Roaches and flies really *are* dirty, unless they've been raised in captivity. In wild conditions, they walk around in garbage and feces, and can track it around. At a previous job, one of my tasks was feeding the hissing cockroaches. They were completely harmless, and probably cleaner than you or me, since they'd lived in a terrarium their whole lives, but no one else could bear to put their hand in the cage.

Throwing away:

[timba.livejournal.com]

Really it depends on whether I made the salad, or if I'm at a restuarant.

If its mine...I'll finish eating.

Re: Throwing away:

[pauraque]

The salad in question came from a restaurant. I think it worries me more to find dead bugs than live ones, because it makes me wonder if there were pesticides used on the greens.

Re: Throwing away:

[timba.livejournal.com]

If it was at a restaurant,. I'd pitch a fit simply because I am mostly a poor starving student, and they'd comp the meal.

:-D I'm usually more concerned with dead buggies as well...

Re: Throwing away:

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Annie's fiance works in commercial refrigeration, and he has horror stories to tell about going to restaurants where the freezer is broken, the interior temperature is 85... and the restaurant is still serving food out of that freezer.

Makes you shudder. I'd never even thought of anything like that until Annie told me about it.

[hilarita.livejournal.com]

I would probably wash the salad if this occured in my own home. In a restaraunt, I'd complain.

[pauraque]

This salad was brought to me by one of my co-workers, from a restaurant. I'd already put salad dressing on it, or washing would have worked.

[kaysha.livejournal.com]

Ditto. That's actually your *right* as a customer (at least here in Central Europe).

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

Depends entirely on just how good the salad is and how much I paid for it. ;-)

[pauraque]

The salad was tasty, and I was very hungry. It only cost three dollars, so maybe you get what you pay for. :)

[florahart]

I mean, I suppose if the caterpillar were also dirty I might throw out the salad. But if he's all damp and cleanly cheerful, well.

None of which means I took it well last summer the time there was an earwig in my coffee.

[pauraque]

It was a fine young specimen of a clean green caterpillar. If it had been something grosser, I might have reacted differently.

*shudders deeply at the earwig* In your coffee? It wasn't still alive, was it?

[florahart]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/florahart/115654.html

I don't think so? But, um, yeah on the ewwwwwww.

[pauraque]

Excuse me while I regurgitate. That is TRAUMA. (At least you didn't crash the car?)

[cschick.livejournal.com]

Those have been crawling all over my leaf veggies (in the garden) for months.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Cleanly cheerful! Who wouldn't love a cleanly cheerful caterpiller! I think we'd all pay extra for a cleanly cheerful caterpiller.

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

ut if he's all damp and cleanly cheerful, well.

The image that just flashed through my brain? IT WAS SO CUTE.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

You are in a maze of twisty caterpillars, each alike.

You a) get eaten by a grue.

[pauraque]

I roll against Charisma to see if I can persuade the caterpillar to leave the salad peacefully.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

LOL I always used my lowest roll to make Charisma, and every time I tried social engineering I would end up in jail or combat or something.

Another time I had a character with a technical specialty that I had to use all my good rolls for, and she was so bad at combat that the other characters took her gun after a couple of them got wounded by friendly fire. Also when retreating one of them had to pick her up and run with her or it would take her like 3 more turns to get away than anyone else.

[kaptainsnot.livejournal.com]

Caterpillars are alright. If there were a slug or earthworm in my food, I would probably need to speak to the head of said establisment and ask for my money. :p Blergh. Caterpillars are...siilky.

Lately I've been finding slugs in my house. :[ Very disturbing. Did you continue eating the salad?

[pauraque]

I did eat the rest of the salad, yes.

I've been finding huuuuuuge banana slugs in my kitchen for... months. I don't know how they get in, or what they want from me.

[kaptainsnot.livejournal.com]

Aw man, that's right. Berkeley. Well, that's one good reason for living in L.A. I'd take yellow over ugly brown any day, but I'm afraid I'd rather not have six inch Slurm Queens in my house.

[grasshopper.livejournal.com]

Examine the remaining salad carefully for signs of life.

This reminds me of that job-interview question where you're part of a salad (let's say you're a cherry tomato, because yum) and you have no way to get out of the salad bowl, and oh noes, what would you do? And you're supposed to answer that you'd rally the other vegetables and all work together to weave a rope of shredded carrots.

Or, er, something.

--Garland

p.s. You friended me and I friended you back but I've never commented here. So, hi :-)

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

Aw, it's like Choose Your Own Caterpillar Adventure. :D

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Remove catapiller very carefully, as they are small and squishy. Give it some leaves to munch on the now empty bread plate. (The bread plate is always empty - there's never enough bread).

Make sure to tip waiter extra for provision of NEW FRIEND!

Eat rest of salad happily.

[kaysha.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!! I love that you make me laugh so often. (This was the second time in just one minute!)

Loved the link to Penis Land, btw.

[bowdlerized.livejournal.com]

I FREAKING LOVE YOU!!!

And for the record, I totally predicted ALL your responses correctly!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

"Waiter! There's a caterpillar in my salad!"
"Please be quiet, sir, or everybody will want one!"

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

I am WIERD about food, and I have a long history of bugs-in-food trauma, so I would throw it away probably. I agree that I would be less grossed out by a caterpillar than something crunchier and more sinister.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Caterpillars are one of the few insects that don't warrant a freak-out from me, but I once had a maggot crawl out of a bowl of blueberries I was eating (out of the blueberry itself, to make matters worse) and it was a full year before I could stand to eat blueberries again. *shudders*

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, extra protein. Be glad they didn't decide to charge you extra for it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Live, it seems like at least it came from organic greenery! :D Though if you'd said something like earwig or maggot, I would have screamed and flung the salad far, far away. Ahem.

The banana slugs just want yer babies. Fanslugs!

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

This happened in a rather pricey restaurant. The warm green salad was baby bok choy. With, as it happened, very pretty matching green caterpillar about, oh, 1.5" long. Still alive (maybe about to cark it from heat exhaustion, but still moving; not warmed much, eh). I looked for its little friends, found none, left it where it was, then complained.

They freaked, grovelled, brought me a new salad, and dashed us both a glass of superior port with the head waiter's apologies. I would have eaten the original salad if I'd been at home, but then I tend to wash large leaf veg carefully, so the problem doesn't arise.

I felt quite differently about the cockroach I found in a sticky bun I bought at school lo these many years ago. I'm not fond of half worms in apples, either, or wasps in apricots just picked from the tree.

[deepsix.livejournal.com]

I had that happen once in a restaurant. I shrieked and kicked up a fuss. They apologised profusely and brought me another salad - which ALSO had a caterpillar in it.

It was at that point that I just gave up and starved.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

I admire you, and the majority of your flist, for not harming the caterpillar. I <3 the adorable little green thingies, too! And I almost answered the same way, but the fact is, I'm not sure where I would have put it, and I'd probably be too lazy to walk it outside of the restaurant, and it doesn't seem fair to just flick it at some other unwary diner. So I had to record that honestly, I probably would have sent the caterpillar to an awful white napkinny death. But I'd have felt bad about it.

[arwencordelia.livejournal.com]

You know what's worse than finding a caterpillar in your salad, don't you?

Finding half a caterpillar!

I got a million of 'em...

[nimori.livejournal.com]

Continue eating.

Mind, with a healthy amount of caution.

Slugs are one thing I don't miss about living on the coast. *shudders*

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

Ugh, slugs! I read above that you've got the banana variety going on in your kitchen: allow me to offer my sincerest condolences, and a suggestion that they're after your very soul.

My ex-boyfriend got a ladybug in his salad once. It was sort of cute, but we did point it out to the staff, and they didn't charge either of us.

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

I bit into a maggoty pear once.

*thinks*

And slugs invade my home almost nightly.

*thinks*

Yep. They're out there.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

Caterpillars need to eat as well as a hungry human. And that is the price you pay for organic food.

Put the little fella on a pant and keep eating.

[cursive.livejournal.com]

My answer to most of these questions depends on whether or not I made the salad.

[riibu.livejournal.com]

Caterpillars are okay, but if it was a snail I would probably throw the salad away. Snails are slimy, while caterpillars (IMHO) aren't.

[jheaton.livejournal.com]

I was a Boy Scout for too many years to throw away food just because it has a bug on it.

[sarcarmic.livejournal.com]

The total nerd that I am would probably just wish I'd have thought of bringing a magnifying glass so that I could study it's behaviour more closely... I love to observe their legs and how they move. Then, when I'd get home, I'd google 'caterpillars' to try and find out where it comes from and how it ended up in my salad. Like I said. Nerd.

[aithopa.livejournal.com]

Once I had just finished eating a large helpin' of broccoli, and I looked down to see a lot of little black things on my plate. Hmm, curious, says I, so I look closer, and they turn out to be...moving.

After a bit of "OMG are they in my TEETH?" I was okay with it if somewhat disconcerted. :D Everyone else at the table was *completely* unfazed. "Oh, I just ate tons of tiny bugs? Fancy that."