Ecologists wag their fingers at annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up March 12, 2007
Posted by daveintexas in News.Tags: Haiku
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Each year out in west Texas, thousands gather for the big Rattlesnake round-up, catching thousands of western diamondback rattlers.
The meat is sold as a delicacy (it does taste like chicken, if you wondered), the skins for boots and belts, and the venom is milked for pharmacuetical anti-venom.
To treat human beings bitten by the poor dears, which of course is just a sin.
It’s a big event, bringing lots of visitors and money to the town of Sweetwater Texas, about 200 miles west of Dallas.
But ecologists express vague concerns about the long term effects of the hunt.
I can calm their fears.
If the field mouse and rat population of Sweetwater Texas explodes to epidemic proportions, you caught too many Sweetwater. So lighten up a bit.
Otherwise, go for it.
Dave in Texas went rattlesnake hunting once, when he was 18.
Why is he writing in the third person?
I don’t know. Roll with it.
He and his pals found a snake hole (you look for scales or some skin on it, or on rocks nearby, yeah shuddup, call me Leatherstocking or something).
They poured kerosene down the hole, to “irritate” the snake and make him come out. And all put their noses next to the hole and waited.
Well irritated he was and out he came.
Like a Titan II out of a silo in North Dakota. We all jumped back like cats and fell over each other trying to get the hell away from him. He was madder than hell.
He made his escape, as did we.
That was my last experience hunting rattlesnakes. Goddam things give me the heebie jeebies.
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Innocent Bystanders 
I hate snakes, too. The black guys in the Army used to call them ‘Jake Noshoulders’. I like that.
Pardon me if I decline to take you up on your invitation to call you “Leatherstocking.”
Incidentally, has anyone here ever read Mark Twain’s take-down of the Leatherstocking books? It’s pretty funny.
I’ve read it Sobek and it’s hilarious. The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper IFRC.
Oh, and by the way, you’re a dork for knowing who “Leatherstocking” was.
Dork.
Actually, Mark Twain is the only reason I know anything about Leatherstocking. I have a JF Cooper book on my shelf, but I’ve never gotten around to reading it.
Evil Con Carne picked up a rattlesnake by mistake. He was on a campout with his sixth grade class and was chasing a lizard with a few other boys. It ran under a rock so he stuck his hand in there and grabbed something and pulled it out. Oops. Not a lizard. The kids screamed and the teacher (who was packin’) came over and shot it. True story.
I remember reading Cooper as a kid. Leatherstocking’s real name was Natty Bumpo. You just don’t forget a name like that.
I guess you already knew I was a dork anyway.
I guess you already knew I was a dork anyway.
The fact you play the clarinet is what you legal beagles (no offense, Moses) call prima facie evidence, no? 🙂
Do not slur me sir, with that vile comparison. I shall have your asshole for supper, yes I shall.
Michael, a buddy of mine and I (me? whatever) swore years before we married that the first one of us who sired a boy would name him Natty Bumppo.
He welshed twice and I wasn’t forced to reneg, thank goodness.
Oh. I was supposed to be Moses the Beagle in that first sentence.
My bad.
Snakes, scorpions, and spiders – yuck. I once had a cat who killed a scorpion which had come into the house. I was unaware that it had entered the house until I I walked into the room and there it was, lying on the carpet near the fireplace (the scorpion, not the cat). I did not know it was dead yet, however, since those suckers can sit quite still for long periods of time. It gave me quite a start, and I engaged in some yodeling practice and swatted it several times with a broom before I noticed it was already dead.
The mighty huntress, kills her dead prey.
I wonder if they call the Mighty Snake River, which borders Idaho and Oregon, for the reason that it twists and turns or because there are a lot of snakes near it’s banks.
If it’s the latter, don’t tell Mrs. Geezer. It wasn’t a happy day, the time the bullsnake came a-visiting indoors.
[…] March 12th, 2007 Dave in Texas fondly remembers the time that he and some buddies went rattlesnake hunting in great outdoors, brave lads armed with nothing but high hopes and kerosene. Read about it here. […]
My bad.
You also misspelled “renege,” but then apparently I misspelled “Bumppo,” so let’s just call it quits.
Yeah well what kinda place you runnin here counselor? Comments and posts been goobered up all day.
Get your shit together. You’re on fuckin notice pal.
Yeah, well what kinda place you runnin here counselor? Comments and posts been goobered up all day.
Get your shit together. You’re on fuckin notice pal.
see? arfin arfety arf arf!
I’m having all kinds of problems too. WordPress can’t remember that I’m logged in, I’ve double-posted, page won’t refresh, comments won’t show up, and so forth.
apparently I misspelled “Bumppo,
Not really, the 2nd ‘p’ is silent.
Silent ‘p’, like the P in Beer.
I’ve also noticed that not a single spam comment has hit our Akismet filter in the last couple of days. It’s got me wondering if WordPress is fighting off some kind of DOS spam attack, and that has slowed everything down.
It looks like I have to hit Control+F5 twice in a row to get this page to refresh correctly.
Yeah, I’m having the same problem at my site. Very weird.
While we’re talking about horrible creatures endemic to Texas, last year, my parents and I went to my uncle & aunt’s place for my cousin’s graduation. While we were sitting around talking, a scorpion came downstairs to join in. We all freaked out and my cousin killed it. We joked that it was a “throwdown scorpion” that my aunt had provided to make sure we didn’t overstay our welcome.
Anyway, that night, I was originally supposed to sleep on a mattress on the floor, but I refused. Dad slept on the mattress instead. Heh.
The latest film version of Last of the Mohicans was poor.
But the soundtrack is excellent.
You’re a dork if you don’t own the soundtrack to that and Braveheart.
Tears of the Sun is a good movie and it has a very good soundtrack.
The soundtrack from ShangHigh Noon, with Jackie Chan, is good.
BTW, if you haven’t seen Legend of the Drunken Master, see it. Very good movie.
[…] in Texas shared his rattlesnake story, so I’ll share […]
Pupster has a technical phrase for WordPress problems:
“It’s taking a dump.”
Oh, my sides are aching from reading Magoo’s letter to Dr. Easterbrook over at Ace’s!! He’s too stupid to be embarrassed. I’m not very bright, so seeing someone who is ever so much dumber than me is simply delightful.
Those 5,000 year-old tree stumps he regards as indisputable, ironclad evidence of…something.
lol, lol, lol
He’ll have that Easterbrook fellow over a barrel, I tell you!
Because there are trees…under the glacier!!1!1!
I want to start fucking with his comments, but I don’t think I can top this.
eh, shite
HAHHAHAHAA
busted again
oh, and I’m way dumber than you.
now I know why you like me.
Oh please.
I don’t even know what a leatherstocking is.
Last spring, I was hunting for morels an walked up to a black snake. I don’t know if they excrete a nasty odor when threatened or if it just shit all over me. In any case, my hands smelled like ass the rest of the day.
I didn’t know what tubers were.
OT, my humorous anecdote about my first arrest for skinny dipping it up over at FTTW here
eh, shite
Alack a day, that such ruffianish ruffianage should be laid at the feet of our resident humpymockefrau.
And muirgeo’s email was indeed concentrated stupidity. He managed to show that he understood nothing about scientific inquiry, social mores, or global warming in just a few sentences. DinTX was right, as usual – I don’t think that guy’s background is anything like he claimed it is.
I got crystal balls or something, I tell you.
I’m good.
I got crystal balls or something, I tell you.
That’s probably what tipped off the police in that pool.