BECAUSE IT'S ALL I GOT

We spent last night in Kansas City, about a four hour drive from St. Louis. Went out to dinner with a couple of Mrs. C's sibs, no new photos. So I got this one left from the botanical garden. The little thing didn't move. When I pointed it out to some children they said it had been in the same place when they had come in the other direction.

I could propose two theme songs for today, https://youtu.be/z_-Lz0q861s and  https://youtu.be/cet97WIq4Aw.         

Sleek

Some very streamlined inhabitants of the St. Louis Zoo. Above, a West Coast harbor seal, if I remember correctly. Below, a pair of Vietnamese long nosed snakes.

The next few days are terribly busy with things to shoot three nights in a row. Tonight, the St. Louis Fringe has a pre-season event, a theatrical version of five stories by the Brothers Grimm. I hear that, like the original works, it's a bit gory. On Friday the family is going to our first Cardinals baseball game of the season. Saturday there is a trivia night fundraiser for the Mitrata-Nepal Foundation (see lower right) and they always ask me to take pix for their web site and materials. Hope my shutter holds out.

Baby Snakes

That's just the name of my favorite Frank Zappa ditty. I don't think these are actually juveniles. Inexplicably, the raptor booth at this World"s Fare thing I mentioned yesterday had a couple of very tame snakes for the kids to handle. The birds would probably like these as a snack. Not crazy about snakes myself. I think it comes from childhood visits to my grandmother's house on the edge of the NY metro area, where I was constantly warned about deadly rattlesnakes in the woods.

Safe snakes or not, it can't be a good idea to let one get entangled in your necklace.                                 

Scary Snake

We saw this just beside a trail at the Desert Botanical Garden. I don't run away screaming from snakes (with the possible exception of a deadly pit viper) but I keep my distance. Locals told me that this was a king snake and not poisonous. Not for me to do any tests.

Below, the raison d'être for all of this.                                     

Baby Snakes

 

You can go for a night walk through the cloud forests of Monteverde with a guide. It's a good idea to have one along. The green serpent above is a juvenile pit viper. They say you can survive its bite if you get the anti-venom serum within four hours. They make it right there in Costa Rica.

Which brings to mind today's theme song.

Snakepit

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I need to get out and shoot some new stuff (in my spare time). For a few days, we will go back to the strange, sometimes desolate area north of the Arch. This is the same weird plaza, still under construction, as in my posts of February 18 and February 10. The latter was shot looking through the hole of one of those red metal donuts. Your children might not want to use that area in the lower left as a wading pool.

WHAT"S ON TODAY'S CALENDAR: another Rituxan infusion. I [heart symbol] big pharma.

TOMORROW: The Polaroid Kidd

Reptile Smooch

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Still editing London pictures. For now, back in Bob Cassilly's crazy plaza in the industrial wastelands north of the Arch, first noted in February 10th's post. He has this thing for giant turtles and snakes. It looks like love to me.

The City Museum - Snakes!

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I don't know much about herpetology but I know a good looking snake when I see one. Despite the fact that many members of this family are high and dry, there are a number of examples in the World Aquarium at the City Museum.

The official theme song of today's post is one of my all-time favorite ditties, Frank Zappa's Baby Snakes:



WHAT I'M CELEBRATING: the dollar is up! The euro is down! The pound is down! Maybe I can afford to visit Europe next year.

TOMORROW: guidance for achieving inner peace from the City Museum. And, if I feel like it, maybe a lagniappe, like a werewolf in a high school letter jacket.