Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/21/90-year-old-woman-bitten-by-po.html
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90-year-old woman bitten by venomous snake stomps on it, then drives herself—and the snake—to church
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That went a slightly different way than I expected.
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Wait, I don’t know if Jesus died to save snakes. Maybe there’s some kind of snake messiah? I wonder if it’s good or evil?
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*Venomous
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Having never tried to consume a water moccasin, I am unable to assert that they aren’t poisonous, too.
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The last time I commented on the venomous/poisonous issue on a reputable publication I was hit with tons of hate for being overly critical of semantics. It’s not a grammar issue. It’s not interchangeable and it is an important distinction. If it bites you and you die, it’s venomous. If you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous.
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Don’t fuck with grandmas, they don’t have patience for your nonsense.
Mrs Maksudova said she was ‘not even frightened’ during the wolf attack.
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I grew up in North Carolina, but escaped almost 30 years ago. I haven’t seen a water moccasin since I was in my mid-teens or so. Odd that I still immediately recognize the one in the picture! I admire her sheer grit, but I do wonder about someone that lives in the South and doesn’t know these snakes on sight. (I’m against killing them just for existing, but seriously, as common as they are, you should be able to identify them.)
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At her age I’m not sure “sight” means quite the same thing any more.
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I once killed a monster burrito with my bare hands! And a table knife, would have been a lot harder without that…
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A lot of people frequently mistake water snakes of the genus Nerodia for cottonmouths, including people who “grew up in the south”.
A lot of people don’t know how to identify them. Including a lot of people who are sure beyond a doubt that they can.
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I live in the South. Without exception, EVERY water snake is identified as a “moccasin” by the locals. It makes a snake encounter ever so much more exciting if it is dangerous.
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True pioneer stock!
The coloration is similar, but the “tail” is wrong. In any case, if you see it, leave it alone! I’m more than well aware of how many people everywhere, not just Southerners, are taught to kill snakes on sight. Oddly enough, one of the things I miss about living in warmer climates is seeing snakes. I know we have them in Wisconsin, even rattlers, although they’re endangered, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen one here.
It’s generally safer to assume any snake you can’t unequivocally identify is venomous, although as I allude to above, this is sadly often fatal to the snake.
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… If it bites you and it dies, you’re poisonous. If it bites itself and you die, it’s magical. …
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Isn’t Snake Messiah that fruit dealer from the book of Genesis?
At least he’s pro-knowledge.
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I grew up south of Houston, and “knew” that cottonmouths and water moccasins were both venomous. It’s good to learn that that is wrong. I was trying to find out how to tell them apart and found this article http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2013/07/readers-write-in-are-water-moccasins.html
It didn’t answer my question, but it, and the comments after it, were pretty interesting.
I have seen them in Illinois
Surely you’re not suggesting a blind elderly woman drove herself to church!
