Some rivals you can reason with. Others you can’t even see coming. Enter the mosquito, humanity’s deadliest enemy. Forget lions, sharks, or snakes… this tiny airborne vampire has taken more human lives than every war in history combined. It doesn’t roar. It whispers. It hunts in silence, armed with anesthetic saliva and a needle so precise it pierces skin without detection.
Malaria. Dengue. Zika. West Nile. Mosquitoes don’t just rival us… they outplay us at our own survival game. Nature’s smallest assassin, thriving in our backyards, waiting for dusk.
⚡️Original pen & ink illustration available! Highest bidder wins (bidding in Instagram Stories). 100% of proceeds will go to @againstmalaria —providing mosquito nets that save lives. You cover postage. Bid here https://www.instagram.com/stories/andycmarshall/3749268070738419003?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTZjNW56ODY0ZXAwOQ==
What food would you say is your specialty?
If I had to pick one food that I’m actually known for, it would have to be the Reuben sandwich. Not just any Reuben, our café’s homemade sauerkraut Reuben that landed us on the official list of the best Reuben sandwiches in the entire state. It wasn’t a fluke, either. There was something about it, the tang of the kraut we fermented ourselves out the back, the perfectly toasted sourdough dark rye, the Swiss melting just enough to act like culinary glue holding everything together. People drove hours for it. Some even asked if they could buy the sauerkraut by the jar.
Before that, I placed third in the scone competition at the Jamestown Show. And if you don’t think third place matters, you’ve clearly never seen the death stares from the country women who’ve been defending their scone titles for decades. Those scones were that good, soft, fluffy, the kind that break apart with the lightest touch and demand to be smothered in jam.
Running the café gallery was genuinely fun in parts, community buzzing through the doors, art on the walls, coffee machines hissing like steam-powered dragons, but the truth is, it consumed every moment of my life. My art, my actual calling got pushed aside. The dream of a creative café turned into 5 am starts and cabbage under my fingernails. The Reuben may have been the cafes culinary masterpiece, but it also showed me something real: just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it’s what you’re meant to give your life to.
Kids Book Illustrator Andy C Marshall 