[Feature Image by HunterxColleen (CC BY-SA 3.0)]

When I was young, people worried about shark attacks in the ocean. The Jaws movies convinced us that the cold, black eyes of death were waiting for us beneath the surface.

Most of us have gotten over that and figured out that sharks are friends, not fiends. However, some readers may find themselves nervous about going into the water again after watching this video of a tarantula swimming in a pool at the Big Bend Ranch State Park in Texas.

That’s right, folks. We’ve got swimming tarantulas in Texas. In truth, you have very little to worry about, taking a dip with a tarantula. Their bite is relatively harmless to humans and, unless you have an allergy, you would suffer very little. The creep factor of the hairy spiders, though, is pretty strong. That’s why we see them so often in movies.

So, share the pool! Swim friendly. It’s the Texas way.

Those who follow my World Weird News are people with a darker sense of humor. You carry Halloween in your hearts. You share jokes about crazy things that you’d like to have happen at your funeral to create confusion and wonder. So, you would completely appreciate Christina Wohle.

Wohle’s son, Cole, died at the age of 18 after a rodeo, not from event injuries, but from a heart attack. It is a difficult and tragic life event. However, Cole was a spirited man, with a darker sense of humor. To honor him, they put Halloween decorations on his grave. The cemetery keeps taking them down.

The claim is that the decorations interfere with mowing and maintenance. Christina calls bullshit on that. Here is her Facebook post, showing the before and after of the decorations.

When I die, assuming I’m not immortal, I hope that someone cares enough about me to make a pilgrimage to my grave and do something that honors me and give the world a little twist. Those who knew Cole seem to believe he would appreciate the gesture as well.

I get it that some people need death to be forever about sadness and loss. I have learned that it is also about continuance, by continuing to remember and celebrate the best parts of people. I think this tradition is a wonderful way to honor Cole. I hope they get to the bottom of this vandalism and are allowed to respect their loved one in their own way.

Sailors have long told the tales of spying mermaids at sea. The traditional answer is that lonely sailors out at sea, fueled by a strong desire for companionship and rum would see manatees sunning themselves on the rocks and imagine them to be beautiful women.

To be clear, they saw this:

from this:

I’d like to think that there’s not enough rum in the world to take me there, but… well… never mind!

Enter Florida fisherman, Alvin McCallister, 72, who was rescued from a small, rocky islet 200 miles off coast. He was shipwrecked a couple of weeks ago and showed incredible courage and capability by surviving off what he could eat in the area, which was seagulls, mussels, and urchins. He also says that during this ordeal, he suffered further when he was sexually violated by mermaids.

Doctors suggest that this was a hallucination brought on by toxins in the animals he ate. The physical symptoms he exhibits they suggest were self-inflicted. I wasn’t there. I don’t know. It is a bizarre experience and, whether all in his head or somehow more real, terrifying.

The full story is available for you to read, but, as always, I paraphrase from Shakespeare “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Florida fisherman lost at sea for 14 days claims he was sexually assaulted by mermaids