It isn’t hard to get carried away by spider enthusiasm. Ask Pierre Paquin and Nadine Dupérré,two professional arachnologists who, in 1999, got swept off their feet by a spider class they took in North Carolina to supplement their studies in biology. Since then both have made major contributions to the field of arachnology. Perhaps Julia is poised to become a world-renowned arachnologist, too… or, more likely, like me she will remain at her “day job” and–outside of academia–apply her appreciation for these animals by watching, reading, and writing about them. [...]