Alarming news today.

Just when you think it's safe to eat fruit again, something comes along and shakes you to your very marrow. Well, it does if you are Mark Parent, environment minister for Nova Scotia, and you are at a reception at the Nova Scotia legislature.

Apparently, he was reaching for a grape, when a spider emerged from the tray of fruit.

"He says he's not normally afraid of spiders, but this one was black and scary", reported the Halifax Chronicle-Herald today "Agriculture minister Brooke Taylor squished the spider in a napkin and sent the creature to his department for analysis." (Lucky there was an agriculture minister on the premises, really)

The spider was a black widow. Just goes to show.

"I'm going to encourage everybody to be very careful when they are handling fruit because you never know what might be in it", said Mr. Parent, who is responsible for food safety in Nova Scotia.

P.S. I'm not going to illustrate this post. I had a look on Google images and scared myself and now I feel like I have spiders on me...