OT: "NCWRC News Releases:" Snakes On A Plane

John Iwaniszek not at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 21 19:31:26 EDT 2006


Chris Rossi wrote:

> 
> ron thigpen wrote:
>> i am not comforted by the phrase "no more aggressive than squirrels."
>> 
> WEll, there are *only* six venomous species in North Carolina.
> 
> chris
> 


I caught this specimen http://tinyurl.com/rndc8 in my compost heap.  I 
took it to Umstead Park and let it go in a gulley where I released one I 
caught on my neighbor's front stoop two years ago.  That's one copperhead 
every three years, on average.

I didn't consider the impact that this movie might have on the snake-
phobic.  The only opinion about the movie I had prior to this past week 
was that it was a case of internet St. Vitus dancing around a camp 
concept which the producers misinterpreted as genuine enthusiasm for the 
film and thus a chance to cash in.  The camp blaxploitation angle and 
what amounts to a film-length one liner, to me, adds up to a crap film. 
The numbers would seem to support that thesis.  The film's one 
interesting facet is the snake fear it capitalizes on and unwittingly 
promulgates.

There are people out there who are hysterically frightened of snakes.  
Their fear turns them into sub-human quivering masses that bounce around 
like oddly shaped super-balls at the thought of contact with snakes.  The 
idea that there might be snakes on airplanes, in addition to acetone 
peroxide bombs cooking in the lavatory, sends them to flights of 
irrationality unimagined by the calmer ones among us.

I personally know someone who had never heard of the movie until last 
Friday.  She is so frightend of snakes that she couldn't look at the 
picture I linked to above.  The first words out of her mouth were, "The 
next thing you know, some idiot is going to try this."  There was no 
comprehension of the big joke we hipsters are supposed to share about a 
bald headed muthuhfukka like Samuel L Jackson shouting "Get these mother 
fucking snakes off of my motherfucking plane."  For her, it's all about 
"snakes!" without nuance.

And I don't think she is alone.  Fear of snakes is ingrained in the 
Southern mentality.  I applaud the WRC.  I think that this is a teachable 
moment in the area of Human/Snake relations.  I say keep up the good 
work!




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