Not Eudora Harry Welty

Mes Araignées

Since I purloined 6 percent of the Republican primary vote from Congressman Pete Stauber I’ve written five columns of absolutely critical analysis about U.S. politics for The Reader. NOT EUDORA They are unsubmitted and collectHARRY ing dust. I’m weaWELTY ried of America’s blood sport – trashing the Declaration of Independence. So instead let me explain the cartoon my wife Claudia taped to the door across from our basement toilette.

Our basement bathroom has been the scene of another blood sport this summer. While enduring my quarantine I’ve watched a succession of spiders setting up shop. I haven’t minded. Naturalists tell us to cut them some slack because they keep pests down.

The first to weave a silken net was a lithe, long-legged, cellar spider. He set up by a door hinge. He was followed by more compact spider that spun a web in the ceiling corner directly above.

I’ve dropped insects in spider webs since childhood, most spectacularly on an Iowa farm where I saw a garden spider wrap a sturdy grasshopper like a mummy in 30 seconds.

I wondered what a contest between spiders would be like?

I knocked the little one from his ceiling perch and upon reaching the floor, long legs began reeling him in with a refined delicacy that put fly fishermen to shame. However, the prey scrambled to safety.

I vowed not to pit such rivals against each other again.

Through the summer at least five species moved in but our bathroom is a bit of a food dessert. In frustration they kept moving on like fishermen searching for better fishin’ holes leaving old webs behind.

One morning I found a small spider hovering above a potential meal that reminded me of an internet video.

That video showed a fearsome 3-foot Australian tiger snake flailing above a garage floor, caught in the web of a notorious Redback. (Google it!)

My drama took place in a corner by the vanity where an inch-and-a-quarter-long centipede frantically ran its hundred legs in place, suspended just above the floor. Its captor was a spider whose abdomen was no longer than the centipede was wide. It skittered up and down the web looping invisible threads onto the much larger predator. The flailing captive lunged upwards, snapping it’s scimitar-like mandibles.

I record a minute of the struggle on my cell phone. It would last five hours and I periodically returned to record its progress. I had a favorite.

Centipedes are one of the few critters I don’t hesitate to squash along with pill bugs.

Spiders I toss out of my house.

After his conquest I told Claudia and others to leave the web alone. While other spiders kept moving to new disappointments, this little spider remained over its glory hole, getting fatter and fatter. Below the web lay litter

of spent husks.

One day I found an unidentifiable critter curled under her ravening. I presume “her” because my cell phone photo, when blown up, suggested she had consumed a suitor.

Another time I found one of two roving cellar spiders upended on the floor caught in her silken threads. I blew on the cellar spider and it hobbled half a step which excited the bereaved widow. Her stirrings brought the cellar spider to a stop. They were like two wary submarines listening to each other in an old war movie. Later the cellar spider picked its way to freedom.

One agate red spider spent a couple quiet days on the web of a cellar spider. I wondered if he wanted to share.

And a baby spider smaller than the period ending this sentence took over an abandoned web. I’ve seen such babies floating off our pine tree by the hundreds on windy spring days after letting out enough silk to catch the breeze to fly off to parts unknown.

Most of the spiders have now retreated from the bathroom. I vacuumed up all their webs today, all of them except for the one belonging to my especially

fatal companion. Her’s is a perilous world as her lovelorn suitor discovered.

Every summer I see iridescent blue wasps searching out their webs on my patio to sting them into becoming incubators for their eggs. Birds snap them up by the millions. Even one of my cats seems always to have her face covered in webs. She’s probably looking for something more flavorful than the same old kibble.

It’s a lethal world, but the spiders in my bathroom have no pretensions, no red button of Armageddon and no cult following.

During the Vietnam protests a college chum chided me when I called for calm.

“Remember what Jefferson said”, he told me, “‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.’”

That’s what I’m afraid of. The release of our inner spiders.

Harry Welty is currently closing in on a three-year mission to learn French hence his arraignées. He farts around at lincolndemocrat.com

Minnesota Medicare Plans in 2020

If you’re shopping for Medicare Medicare plus supplemental coverage. plans in Minnesota, it’s easy to feel Medicare Advantage plans cover all of overloaded with information. That’s the same benefits as original Medicare, actually good news because it means plus a lot of the benefits you might you have a lot of options. get from Medicare supplement plans,

Medicare is a national health insurincluding prescription drug coverage. ance program for adults more than Only instead of having separate plans, 65 and people of any age who meet you get it all from a single plan you certain health criteria. purchase from a private insurance

Medicare isn’t just a single health company. plan. There are various parts, some of Medicare Advantage plans frequently which you get from the government offer a lot of perks as well, such as and others that you can purchase health and wellness programs, member from private insurance companies. discounts, and more. Parts A and B make up what’s known A number of private insurance as original Medicare, which comes companies offer Medicare Advantage directly from the government. plans in Minnesota, including:

Part A: You can think of Part A • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of as hospital insurance. It helps pay a Minnesota portion of the costs for any inpatient • UCare Minnesota health care services you receive while • Humana Insurance Company in a hospital, a skilled nursing facility, • Medica Health Plans or hospice care. It also offers coverage • HealthPartners, Inc. for some home health services. Part • Allina Health and Aetna Insurance A is funded through a payroll tax. So, Company if you or your spouse worked for at • Sierra Health and Life Insurance least 10 years, you’ve probably already Company Inc. paid for it and won’t need to pay a • Blue Plus premium. • PacifiCare Life Assurance Company

Part B: This part of Medicare • Aetna Life Insurance Company helps pay for basic outpatient health • Group Health Plan Inc. (MN) care services, medical supplies, and • South Country Health Alliance preventive care you get at the doctor’s • Quartz Health Plan MN office. You do pay a premium for Part Corporation B. The amount varies depending on • PrimeWest Rural MN Health Care factors such as your income. Access Initiative

While it may seem as if original • Itasca Medical Care Medicare covers a lot, there are plenty • Anthem Insurance Companies Inc. of gaps. Parts A and B don’t include These are listed in order of highest any coverage for prescription drugs, to lowest Medicare Minnesota enrollfor example, nor do they cover vision, ment. Plan offerings may vary by dental, or hearing care. Original county. Medicare also doesn’t provide coverage You can begin the process of enrollfor long term care. It’s also important ing in Medicare three months before to understand that coverage isn’t 100 your 65th birthday. This is when percent for even the things parts A your initial enrollment period begins. and B do cover, so you may still pay It then continues for three months out of pocket when you seek care in after you turn 65. It usually makes the form of copays, coinsurance, and sense to enroll in at least Part A at this deductibles. time, assuming you qualify for Part A

Medicare supplement plans, without paying a premium, even if you sometimes called Medigap plans, or your spouse continue to qualify for were developed to help cover the health insurance through an employer. gaps. Medicare supplement plans If you choose not to enroll in Part are available from private insurance B during this time, you’ll be able to companies and can complement your enroll in a special enrollment period original Medicare. These plans may later on. help pay some out-of-pocket expenses, Take advantage of the following as well as add coverage for dental or resources to learn more about your other types of care. Medicare options in Minnesota:

Part D plans are a specific type of • Minnesota Commerce Department supplemental coverage for prescription • Minnesota Board on Aging drugs. They add coverage to help you • Medicare.gov pay for medications. • Senior LinkAge Line (800-333-2433)

Medicare Advantage plans, also known as Part C, offer an “all-in-one” alternative to purchasing original

Mike Jaros, Ria Meltzer, Joseph Raycraft, Mary and Jim Stukel, Harry Welty, Cindy and Jack Seiler, Brian Smith, Pat and Larry Duncan, Don Macor, Margery Stanley-Meyer, Barbara and Steven Rovinsky, Dennis Elj, Rick Ball, Peg Apka, Jim Suttie, Jacqueline and Ken Moran, Ronald Lampinen, Leonard Lamoureux, Richard Benson, Susan Wollack, Maria and Robert Fierek, Linda and David O’Connor, Nia Buria, Ann Kreager, Kathy Goetze, Robert Britton, Mario Ferrer, Loreen and Edward Engelson, Jason Maloney, Cindy Dillenschneider, Shary Zoff, Frances Kaliher, Paul Roen, Karen and Kalen Johnson, Cecilia Hill, Mark Elden, Patricia Dowling, Ann and Jerome Miller, Carolyn Sheets, Doretta and David Reisenweber, Karen Moore, Joanne and David Sher, Sara Kylander-Johnson, Jeanie Mulford, Rick Rovner, Gary Orwig, Kurt Salmela, Dennis Rogalsky, Elaine Palcich, Bill Lynch, Mary Thompson, Lenny Sandberg, George Erickson, Lindsay Sovil, Sebastian Lamberti, Philip Anderson, Hal Moore, Beth Tamminen, Paul Jorgenson, Ben Effinger, Charlene and Denis Liljedahl, Anita and Richard Paulson, Dawn Thompson, Kathy and Tom Maas, June Kreutzkampf, Marlene and Greg Barto, Lorraine and Russell Mattson, June and Rodger Klosowsky, Ivy Wright, Larry Johnson, Sharon and William Wilton, Ann Scott, Bart Sutter, Stan Eisenberg, Jason Johnson, Dennis Zimmerman, Jack Pick, Walt Prentice, Doris Malkmus, Carol Beach, Judith and James Cherveny, Edith Greene, Marc Elliot, Laura Davidson, Sanford Anderson, Dorothy and Harry Skye, Thomas Waletzko, Karen and Patrick Lucia, Debra Nordman, Margaret Fait, Joanne and John Zarins, Kathleen and William Croke, Barbara Bayuk, Alicia Gaskin, Jo Thompson, Thomas Kermeen, Rick Ball, Michael McKenna, Mary Ann Katzmark, Pastor George and Lou Ellen Gilbertson, Kathryn Krikorian, Nordic Center, Carl Etter, Susan Dailey, Karen and Tim White, Dennis Welsh, M. Swartz, Frances and Robert Chammings Linda Dean, Charles Cieslak, Marissa Anderson, Ken DeYoung, Norma Eliason, James Roskoski, Sandra and Gary Peterson, Jean Harden, David Peterson, Donald Myntti, Susan Lehto, Tim Bergstrom, Madonna Ohse, Elmer Engman, Bunter Knowles, Terri Ach, Rebecca Norlien, Sebastian Szczebrzeszyn, Kathy Winkler, Kit Olson, Nina Buria, Patricia Richard-Amato, James Amato, Sean Sundquist, Terry McCarthy, LaVonne and Samuel Schneider, Kit Olson, Margaret Nelson, Robert Berg, Margaret Fait, Mary Dresser, Cheryl and James Haasis, John McGovern, Mary and Roland Doble, Susan Munson, Arthur Pearman, Barbara Rovinsky, Georgianna Henry, Donna Bewley, P. Anholm, Matt Hill, Debbie and Dick Cooter, Victoria and Thomas Karas, Kay and James Kingsley, A. Weber, Nina Buria, James Downs, Doris Running, Katie Krikorian, Mary Klausen, Sylvia Jamar, Mark Lutterman, Christine Kustritz, David Thibault, Jan and David Conley, Jane Soukup, Horace Kahlbaugh, Bobby and Kit Kunze, Andrea and James Palumbo and several anonymous donors

We asked loyal readers to help during this distressing time, and you answered with donations to help The Reader stay afloat. With so many of our advertisers still closed, we are struggling with greatly reduced ad revenue. If you would like to help, donate through the website (DuluthReader.com) or by mail P. O. Box 16122, Duluth, MN 55816. We give thanks. Thank YOU!