Thanks, Elizabeth. I know I read
Dreamsnake, and I did not love it nearly as much as the short story. I probably also read
Grass in the same timeframe. Yikes. Sorry for the confusion. I like Tepper's
The Gate to Women's Country - was kinda' into strident feminist fantasy for a while.....
oh, i could probably feed the snakes....
for an evolutionary bio class i took at SUNY Buffalo (i'm from buffalo originally) my group was required to do a report on annelids and arthropods.... i decided we should do edible annelids and arthropods. AND, as we all learned in 2nd grade, if you cook for the class, you get an A. Beer battered crickets. I got over half the class to try 'em too. (and this was before all the "eat the gross thing" tv shows.)
i worked in bio, and have sac-ed my share of mice..... (when the great mouse rebellion comes along, i will be one of the first against the wall, along with all the snake owners....)

and MG, you do have my condolences on the loss of your python. it's quite hard to lose a pet.