It all started with a spider.

Well, actually, it all started with a spider drawing.

Well, no, it actually all started with an overdue chiropractic bill and the resulting email exchange regarding that bill.  (As well as, one might imagine, a terrifically colorful childhood.)

Ill-adjusted (that’s a chiropractor joke, folks – sometimes you just have to walk through that door) Australian e-mail guerilla aficionado David Thorne bravely addressed this overdue bill by sending a personally-crafted drawing of a 7-legged spider (some might call it “defective;” we call it art) as compensation.  This back-and-forth exchange didn’t, regrettably, get him out of his bill (art valuation is so subjective).  The e-mails did however make him groovily e-famous, putting him in hallowed company with likes of RatherGood and Beached As and the Flying Spaghetti Monster – namely, as an insider T-shirt joke among those of us who simply spend far too much time on the interwebs (a series of tubes).  The spider first made an appearance on T-shirts last year and has been adorning the chests of snarky e-mail fans ever since.

We too had the distinct pleasure of an intriguing e-mail exchange with David Thorne (and a spider drawing exchange, to be entirely truthful), and as it happens seems we’re not alone.  David now has a book out (with the rather jaunty title “The Internet is a Playground“), and so if you feel a need to immortalize the digital playground that binds us all together, hey – buy the book.  It’s funny.  And it gives you an excuse to doodle spiders with a questionable limb count.

We recently asked David 5 Very Important & Investigative Questions to get to the bottom of this offbeat merchandising success story.  Here is our official 1-part, 5 question interview:

1. CP: Do you believe that the 8th leg of the spider is worth more than any individual of the 7?

DT: Surprisingly enough, every day I am sent emails with an attachment of the missing leg from people thinking they are the first to do so. I now have enough collected to make several hundred spiders. If each of those was actually worth the original, I would have enough money to quit my job and devote my time to developing my idea for a television series about a talking car that fights crime.

2. CP: How has your CafePress shop changed your life?

DT: The extra spending money each month has come in quite handy. Not that long ago, I worried a lot about paying the bills, having food in the fridge and even buying my son a birthday present.  Now that I can afford decent drugs, these things no longer concern me at all.

3. CP: Why did you write a book?

DT: There was certain content on the website that had to be removed or amended due to legal reasons. This did not apply to the book which annoyed some and amused me. I also had a few people at the time telling me that it would be great if the content was in book form so they could give it to people they don’t like.

4. CP: Have you seen Jane since your coy email exchange?

DT: No, I have not been back to that chiropractor and will never go to another. It is a well known fact that the medical test for becoming a qualified chiropractor is to sing as much of the ‘hip bone is connected to the thigh bone’ song as you can remember. This test can be completed online or by mail.

5. CP: Why is Australia so freaking far away from everything else?

DT: Although Australia is well known for its native pandas and snow capped mountains, its large volume of New Zealand immigrants, spiders the size of small children and khaki wearing crocodile wrestlers means that the distance from other countries is probably best for all. The only country worse, and thankfully even further away, is New Zealand.

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So if you want to support David’s effort to improve his attitude and overall worldview via abundant self-medication, buy the book.  And if you just want to enjoy some free laughs, check out the 27bslash6 website.