Oh, c’mon…
The dude in the inset is Thomas Muffet, a 16th Century physician. He was one of the authors of Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum (Theatre of Insects), a big book on bugs, that wasn’t published until some years after his death in 1604. His speciality was spiders.
Wikipedia – that killest of killjoys – says there’s no proof of a connection to Little Miss Muffet:
It has been suggested that Muffet’s stepchild, his only daughter, Patience, is the subject of the nursery rhyme ‘Little Miss Muffet’. Although the name and subject fit the verse, there is no clear evidence of a connection and the verse was only printed in 1805.
*eyeroll emoji*
I like MidJourney’s Miss Muffet and googley-eyed spider. I had to cut off some AI weirdness on the righthand side, though. (That round thing in the bottom right corner appears to be a bowling ball).
Posted: September 18th, 2025 under personal.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: September 18, 2025, 7:20 pm
Spidey seems to have 10 legs too 🙂
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: September 18, 2025, 9:11 pm
Ten legs? A decapod? Then that must be a Black Widow Shrimp.
@stoaty — I’m glad to know that’s likely a bowling ball. I took it for the skull of a former shrimp kill.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: September 19, 2025, 1:36 am
Funny you should bring up spiders. This morning JavaMan found a large Texas Brown Tarantula on the potting table. They were both muy surprised. A female apparently, looking for love. This is the time of the year when they mate.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: September 19, 2025, 8:12 am
We too have been hosting a very polite web spider next to the back porch door.
About the size of an adult thumbnail it weaves it’s web in the evening after sunset, probably a foot across, and then takes it all down just before the sun clears the tree line in the morning.
I contrast this with the east Texas ones around the work in (forever) progress house. They are much larger, and they leave their webs up on the porch out there to upset Mrs D. and her desire for order and neatness in nature.
They also like to build them across the road/path down towards the lower field so yours truly can get a face full of web if I go down that way after sunset without a light.
I try not to think of the size of a spider that spins a web across a 6 foot path when that happens, because East Texas grows, as everything being bigger here is a State law, big honking spiders
@Uncle Al…same page, I think the AI is a bit macabre and added the skull/bowling ball in some sort of Victorian style nod.towards the ghastly
Comment from S Weasel
Time: September 19, 2025, 4:16 pm
No, spidey has the correct number of legs. Rather surprised me, to be honest.
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: September 22, 2025, 1:24 am
Have you ever seen Xue Wang’s work? The girl and the spider are recurring topics for her.
Comment from aelf
Time: September 22, 2025, 1:31 am
Did you ask for it to be in the style of Tenniel or is that just what MidJourney produced?
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