Comments on: Golfer Who Got Bitten By Black Widow And Kept Playing, You’re Our New Spider-Woman

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:01:00 +0000

Comic books and comic book references suck.

By: Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:52:00 +0000

I persisted in calling it a black widow in the beginning because the golfer didn’t find out until later it wasn’t. SHE thought she might die because of the type of spider.

And besides all that, we kept “black widow” in the beginning because it worked out as a more interesting comic book reference.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:45:00 +0000

It’s well known that a significant number of readers don’t read until the end of any given article. As such, most journalists use as an inverted pyramid approach to content in articles, with the most salient points of the story put toward the beginning of the piece. This was also done so that print editors could easily cut paragraphs is the paper was short on space that issue. I know this is a blog, but that has it’s own problems — mainly that many people only see the title and the first paragraph of a post. I assume The Mary Sue is a professional blog (if not, it certainly feels like one), so in the future the author might want to try to stick to putting the pertinent information earlier in the article. It’s not a big deal, but I thought the author’s reply was a bit snarky, so I threw in my two cents. She said it was a redback, but she ALSO said it was a black widow.

By: Melissia

Melissia — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:16:00 +0000

Or they could be intelligent, reasonable people and read the entire article.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:52:00 +0000

To be fair, the article identifies the spider in question as a black widow in the title and in the first paragraph. The fact that you clarify the species at the very end doesn’t really negate the fact that you misidentified it twice earlier. People just scrolling through the article titles on the main page will come away with the idea that she was bitten by a black widow, because you said she was bitten by a black widow. The redback spider ID should probably come near the beginning of the article.

By: White Rose Brian

White Rose Brian — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:16:00 +0000

Thank God she’s safe.

By: Addie/Annie D

Addie/Annie D — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:29:00 +0000

Not every little living things wants to kill people, here. It’s the people that usually tick them off that makes them want to bite/attack.

By: Sam Groves

Sam Groves — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 04:39:00 +0000

It’s unlikely that what was oozing out was venom at all but instead was pus – otherwise known as white blood cells – AKA your body’s first defense against detected threats.

And while this does qualify her as a bad ass in the same vein as your typical “Cowboy” from an American Western made in the 50′s. It’s pretty much established that you can’t suck/squeeze or otherwise ‘force out’ venom simply by cutting the wound and pushing blood out. She took a real chance at doing herself more harm than the bite in her actions.

By: Stealth Flower

Stealth Flower — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 02:32:00 +0000

Yes, this. And that the amount of venom a redback would inject is too small to actually be seen oozing out. She’s still awesome, but it’s very unlikely it was a redback she was bitten by.

By: Andrea Höst

Andrea Höst — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:53:00 +0000

And all the local spider experts immediately raised their eyebrows, pointed out that redbacks are “hide under things” spiders not rambling explorers, that the amount of venom they could inject is tiny and would not be visible, and that if she’d actually been bitten by a redback she’d be _extremely_ unlikely to go on playing golf.
There are plenty of other spiders it might have been though. We have plenty. ;)

By: Elizabeth-Amber Delaney

Elizabeth-Amber Delaney — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:50:00 +0000

Wow, people LOVE to comment before even reading the story, eh?

By: Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Thanks for commenting but if you read the entire post you’ll notice we did explain it was a Redback in the last paragraph.

By: Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Yes, it says it was a Redback in the last paragraph. Thanks for reading!

By: Karen Webber

Karen Webber — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Hey this happened in my home town. It was a redback spider.

According to this they are a species of widow spider but every Australian calls them redback spiders. Please respect our incredibly deadly wildlife and refer to them correctly.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/golf/swedish-golfer-uses-tee-to-extract-spider-venom-20130214-2ee8v.html

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:28:00 +0000

Actually, it was a redback spider, not a black widow. I don’t think we have black widows here (Australia)

By: Arakiba

Arakiba — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:24:00 +0000

Australia – where everything is trying to kill you!

By: Magic Xylophone

Magic Xylophone — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:15:00 +0000

As far as excuses for not being on top of your game go, “veins coursing with deadly venom” is a pretty good one.