Friday, December 17, 2010

Pet of the Week goes to a Market Harborough grasshopper

The winner is Isis, a female Egyptian grasshopper. If things had turned out differently she could be curled up in front of my fire now. For she was found up in a bag of salad bought from Sainsbury's Market Harborough.

More in the Leicester Mercury, where Helen Ikin, the grasshopper recorder for Leicestershire Entomological Society (who wins Job of the Day, incidentally), is quoted as saying:
"It's not exactly common for people to find them, but if something is found in food that has travelled from that part of the world it is usually an Egyptian grasshopper. A lot of people do keep them as pets. They are lovely creatures."
In Shropshire, by contrast, you are more likely to come home with a lizard in your broccoli.

2 comments:

puzzledgwyn said...

Your link tells me nothing of Salopian lizards, but of Andy Burnham and cricket!

Have you been overindulging in the Smithson & Greaves again?

Jonathan Calder said...

Read on. The NS had a way of making its introduction look like the first paragraph of the column.