Atlas Obscura is having an insect love-fest right now, so I’ve been avoiding them as hard as I can – seriously, I’d rather not start wondering whether one of the evil insects being displayed in all their glory is currently under my chair, behind my desk, or about to crawl up my leg. But I spotted an article about a famous market in Beijing being closed down and I wanted to know more about that so I went over there to read it.
Along with the photo of poultry and lobsters being sold alongside what I think was eel and what were quite possibly cooked Graboids was also a picture of scorpions and gigantic crickets on sticks, because apparently some (crazy!) people think those are a foodie delicacy too. The market is being shut down because the neighbors were complaining about the smell, which does make you wonder why it took 32 years for the neighbors to complain enough to get a place selling egg rolls alongside spitted larvae shut down. Maybe the egg rolls were really good? Free roast cricket with every order? Who knows.
And that was when I noticed a little gnat on my screen. Now, I’m used to seeing little flying bugs on my monitor, because I have plants and sometimes the plants have little houseguests living in their soil. So I ignored the bug…and then I saw another one. And one more. And that was when I realized that in honor of Bug Week Atlas Obscura had infested their article with virtual gnats which will fly to another part of the screen if you mouse over them. It’s actually kind of cute, so if you want to play with them – or if you just want to see some scorpion-on-a-stick – head over there and take a look.