On Wednesday there was a bug in my classroom the size of a minivan.

All of a sudden the kids in middle of the room, which had stadium style tiered seating, started going bananas. And no one would kill it, they said it was to big.

Rather than wading into battle myself, I offered extra credit to whomever killed the dang thing. Finally one girl obliged.

When she stepped on it, the bug made a sound like Vlad Guerrero's bat connecting on a fastball.

In East Orange we had rats. But we also had a designated rat-killer -- Darren -- who would borrow a hammer from the janitor and brain the things. Barely noticed after awhile....

oj Great headline/Gross imagery.

During Summer classes we were mostly dozing when a student in the back screamed bloody murder then more and then total pandemonium. There in a corner was the largest spider ever seen on Earth (we all agreed on that). A North American Tarantula we were later told.

No one, me included, wanted anything to do with that bad looking critter. Luckily, someone from the biology dept came to the rescue. He simply looked at it and then reached down and scooped it up in his hand and away he went.

Did we thank him for his bravery? Nope, most comments were, "Gee, that guy's nuts."