Today I visited the home of George Brossard, an eccentric Quebecois insect collector who supplied all of the beetles for the Spivet movie. He has approximately 400,000 specimens from 120 countries in 10 rooms, including several live tarantulas and scorpions which he handles quite nonchalantly.
“I have seen things,” he said, shaking his head. “I have met sheiks and drug lords, princes and killers, and they don’t bother me because they know I am looking at the bugs.”
I declined the opportunity to hold the tarantula. “If you believe you will not be hurt, you will not be hurt,” he laughed. “It’s in the Bible and it’s my life philosophy.”
