New Mexico Black Widows

Land - D *** Labor - L *** Capital - C *** Entrepreneurship - E

So, you wake up in the morning and realize that your garage is filled with black widow spiders. Needless to say, you don’t want to crawl around on your hands and knees poking after deadly spiders. You call a professional, some guy at the exterminator's. Oddly enough, this simple service actually requires a huge amount of activity for its completion.

When you pick up the telephone (__), an electric signal (__) passes along a huge network of transmission lines (__) strung by linesmen (__) and routed by computers (__) before it gets to the exterminator’s shop. To even make it there, the call requires a huge amount of computer software (__) which was programmed by a programmer (__). Bill Gates (__) probably invented the operating system and runs the company that makes the programming possible. The exterminator’s secretary (__) takes the call and writes down your information with a pencil (__). The pencil was created by loggers & sawmill employees (__) who worked on lumber (__) cut from a wood lot (__) in what used to be a national forest (__) before a senator (__) was paid a lot of money (__) to vote to put the forest up for sale despite the fact that this meant that the spotted owl (__) would become extinct. So, that afternoon, the exterminator (__) picks up the slip that brings him to your house (__).

“What’s the problem,” he asks?

“I’ve got black widows (__) in my garage.”

“It’s the El Nino weather pattern (__). They love the wet weather. Don’t worry, I’ll bomb ‘em with some serious death chemicals (__).”

“That won’t get into the groundwater (__) will it?”

The exterminator grimaces at you. “Nah, it’ll evaporate into the air (__).”

Relieved, you decide to follow the exterminator around and watch him kill the nasty spiders. You follow him into the garage and watch as he uses his sprayer (__) to anoint your garage with a bitter poison.

“So,” you ask, “how’d you get to be an exterminator?”

“Well, I had to go to a training program (__) which was taught be some really weird teachers (__). That didn’t really teach me much since I didn’t pay much attention. Then, I went to work around the shop. None of that amounted too much, I mostly just filed and swept. My big break came when my big fat boss (__) decided he wanted to go camping. He needed a big tent, so he took me along. We went up into the mountains (__) and did some fishing at McCallister Lake (__). Unfortunately, we weren’t catching anything and my boss was getting pretty angry. Luckily, my uncle owns a fish farm (__). I took my boss there and let him catch a bunch. He was happy, I was happy, and I go this job.”

“So, basically you buttered him up (__).”

“Yup,” says the exterminator. “Well, I’m done. All your bugs are dead. The stink should go away in a week or so.”

You follow him out to his truck (__) where he gives you the bill (__). As he drives down the road (__) you see a thunderstorm (__) coming across the mesa (__) and wonder if lighting (__) will blow out your television (__).