Today’s question: What’s your favorite fairy tale or myth?

My favorite myth is the story of Arachne, a brilliant weaver who lost a contest with the goddess Athena and was transformed into a spider for her efforts. In more than one version of the myth, Arachne wove scenes of the gods misbehaving, and that’s what most enraged Athena. That makes me like Arachne a lot. The Greek gods were, generally speaking, huge jerks to mortals and Arachne wasn’t afraid to say so.

My favorite fairy tale might be the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It’s quite morbid, as a lot of original fairy tales are, with the piper luring Hamelin’s children to their deaths. But what I find really mysterious is that unlike most fairy tales, this one seems to be inspired by a real tragedy that happened in Hamelin hundreds of years ago.