Was that a mosquito I saw you with? That was no mosquito, that was ...

The other day the kidlet and I were out for a walk. We'd just turned the corner when she screamed that scream that can only mean one thing: She's just seen some hideous insect that she just knows is about to sting her repeatedly or suck all her blood or something. Or an ant. In any case there it was, up on a picket fence: A mosquito the size of a dinner plate (OK, more like the size of half-dollar, but you get the idea). I assured her it was a male, and they don't bite people; they only eat fruit. She didn't buy it for a second; when we came back, she made me check the fence first to make sure it was gone.

Turns out it might not have been a mosquito. The Urban Pantheist describes crane flies, which to the untrained eye look pretty much like mutant mosquitos:

... The insect in question is the harmless, which is to say non-biting, crane fly. There are hundreds of species of them, and when they are fully grown, most do not feed on anything at all, never mind on human blood. ...