My Hero

I present Gary Botting, a personal hero of mine...(couldn't get a pic to load)

This guy is the author of a rather a lot of books, plays, and essays. He is a Canadian extradition law specialist who just happens to have had an early international start as a journalist. All that is impressive enough-- and there's so much more! 

Seriously, you gotta read up on this guy--but what makes him my hero is his work with saturniid moths. The most familiar of these critters is probably the luna moth. There's a very short list of things that I love as much as saturniids* even though moth feet freak me out. I know that sounds weird, especially since creepy crawly things don't freak me out at all. I can hold spiders, centipedes, beetles, and butterflies just fine. But for some reason, furry little moth feet weird me out.

Anywho, the reason why I dig this guy so much is (as I mentioned) because of his work with saturniids. 

He is THE GUY who is responsible for the reclassification of the Polyphemus moth that is still recognized today. Gary Botting did this by crossing a North American Polyphemus moth with giant silk moths from Japan and India by surgically transplanting the female moths pheromone sacs, WHEN HE WAS IN HIS EARLY TEENS! He won numerous science awards, and began touring North America giving presentations on the subject. This lead to tours in Asia, and eventually his career in journalism.

I suspect he's a very busy guy, but I'd love to shake his hand.

 Since he's written over 40 books (including plays and poetry), I'm sure the talking book library has some of his works, which I will report back on. Anyhow, he's among my personal heroes and I just thought I'd share a bit of awesome :)

*Things I love as much as saturniids:

toads, and bioluminescent mushrooms