Thanks, everyone. I'm prodding my dad now to post the snake-head pics.

Yeah, JZ's dad lives pretty near me. I've seen 3 rattlesnakes in the last year on my dog walks. I don't have a snake phobia, thank god. 11 years of being a camper and camp counselor in the San Bernardino mountains stomps that right out of you.

And this is not to say that people shouldn't have phobias about animals, but I personally am far more scared of people than any animal. I carry pepper spray on my dog walks for predators, mostly of the two-legged variety.

Scold's Bridle: Medieval Punishment for Gossiping and Quarrelsome Women

That’s the "Scold’s Bridle," a gruesome mask used as punishment for "rude, clamorous woman," who are considered to be spending too much gossiping or quarreling in the Medieval times. It came complete with a bell on top, no less:

Time spent in the bridle was normally allocated as a punishment by a local magistrate. The custom developed in Britain in the 1500s, and spread to some other European countries, including Germany. When wearing the mask it was impossible to speak. This example has a bell on top to draw even more attention to the wearer, increasing their humiliation. It was used until the early 1800s as a punishment in workhouses.

I learned about those because it was the title (and featured in) a British crime drama. Waking the Dead, I think.

Huh. Nope it was just called The Scold's Bridle and had Miranda Richardson.

But while looking for that, I found this QI [link]

Aw, yeah, now I feel productive. I just got off the phone with my parents and they are giving me a back fence for my birthday because they are awesome (and because my current back fence has holes that the dog goes right through) and while I was talking to them I got a reply from the company that made my worm bin and it sounds like they will send me the parts I am missing free of charge. Yay.

The book The Scold's Bridle was the basis for that movie, and one of Minette Walters' first. Really good.

-t, very practical gift! I love it.

JZ, here is a picture of one of the Rattlers Steve and I found on one of our dog walks in the Oakland hills: [link]

PSA for anyone considering getting one of those "i've fallen and can't get up" push button alerts...DON'T get Lifeline. Their employees are consistently poorly trained and apparently unable to think. They frequently have difficulty finding the address of the subscriber. Seriously, how much help is it to not know where to send the frigging ambulance? It's very frustrating to get call after call from a professional monitoring service whose employees can't even provide the most basic information.

LifeAlert, OTOH, seems a viable alternative with much better service. And by "service" i mean competence. I have no idea how they compare re: pricing and customer service, but i know that if i'm having a medical emergency and can't manage anything other than pushing a necklace button, i want the folks on the other end to know where i am. Darnit. This rant brought to you by Monday.

That California snake site has a page [link] that includes how to tell the difference.

Poor rattlesnakes. They're very shy and only bite if something steps on them or right after someone says, "Hold my beer and watch this!" Their venom is rarely lethal except to very small people (Thank goodness Matilda had the sense not to pick the snake up, whatever it is.) and people who are very unlucky in where they're bitten.

Moccasins, on the other hand, are mean SOBs. A snake expert I was interviewing told me, "This is how you tell the difference between a harmless water snake and a moccasin. The water snake is running away; the moccasin is coming after you."