Stuff of Nightmares
10/30/2011
Burmese pythons should have been left in Burma where they belong. I hope it's too cool for them here.
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"to help stop the spread of pythons further north" - certainly a praiseworthy endeavour!
Posted by: Paul | 10/30/2011 at 12:24 PM
And one for which I wish all possible success.
Posted by: Mac | 10/30/2011 at 01:10 PM
Is it going to be too cool for them in Florida?
Posted by: ex pat | 10/30/2011 at 08:36 PM
No, that's where this one grew to be sixteen feet long. They're thought to have established themselves there after being released by people who bought them as pets.
Posted by: Mac | 10/30/2011 at 08:56 PM
If it's not too cool for them in Florida, perhaps they will stay there instead of moving north. These animal lovers are crazy. And thoughtlessly selfish. No would move to the USA for the sake of the climate. They should know that. So why would they do this to these poor innocent pythons - force them to live in this bizarre and unhealthy climate?
Posted by: ex pat | 10/30/2011 at 09:23 PM
Well, the pythons are perfectly happy in the Everglades, it seems. That's some hundreds of miles south of here, where it pretty much never freezes. I'm hoping the pythons will find this far too polar. Hope none of those animal lovers decide to knit sweaters for them.
Thirty-plus years ago the federal wildlife people decided to introduce alligators to the area where I'm from 300 miles further north. They have an actual winter there, though it's pretty mild, with frequent freezes, and people thought the gators wouldn't survive. But apparently they have. That gives me cause for concern about the pythons.
I read something many years ago about the US by Eric von Kunheldt-Ludein (I'm sure I butchered that spelling) where he remarked in passing that the climate in the southeastern part of the country was "intolerable." Most of us who live here would agree with that in summer.
Posted by: Mac | 10/30/2011 at 10:04 PM
I'm a great admirer of the guy but also would fear to write his name in case I misspelled it.
Posted by: ex pat | 10/31/2011 at 09:02 AM
Would you recommend any particular book by him? I've never read anything but magazine pieces.
Posted by: Mac | 10/31/2011 at 09:44 AM
I liked The Timeless Christian. It is naturally *very* dated, having been published in 1969. But I thought it was full of good things, and enjoyed the cartoons very much.
Posted by: ex pat | 10/31/2011 at 04:00 PM
Well, if he's timeless, it shouldn't be a problem.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 10/31/2011 at 05:35 PM
Looks like (via Amazon) not much of his stuff is in print in English. But I remembered that I have one of his books, a library discard, a novel called The Gates of Hell, published by Sheed & Ward in 1934. Perhaps I'll, like, read it.
Posted by: Mac | 10/31/2011 at 08:31 PM
I tried to read one of the novels (and I think it was that one) in the early 80s when I was writing my PhD. The Catholic Central library, then in central London, still had a huge supply of never checked out pre-Vatican II books. The novel I tried was one of them. In my opinion at the time, it was unreadable - all the characters standing for different metaphysico-ethico-cosmic Ideas. But, although we seem to share identical tastes in music (I've never bought a DVD you recommended that I didn't like)
and similar tastes in film (not so much a Bergmann fan and loved Into Great Silence), we seem to be at opposite poles when it comes to novels (dislike LOTR & Potter). So you might see the value in it where I failed to do so.
Posted by: ex pat | 11/01/2011 at 09:09 AM
I'm prejudiced for it, in that it's an old Sheed & Ward book, and also because it's E vK-L. However, that's hope shouting down experience, because S&W was not in the literature business. I've had bad experiences with fiction from primarily religious publishers. And the jacket blurb, which is pasted into the back of the book, is a little ominous along the lines you describe. The book still has its original library checkout card, the pre-electronic kind where they stamped it, and it looks like it was checked out a number of times in the 1930s, and very little afterwards.
Posted by: Mac | 11/01/2011 at 09:17 AM