{"id":5908,"date":"2013-07-08T08:43:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T13:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2013-07-08T08:43:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T13:43:05","slug":"i-doubt-i-can-be-surprised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/?p=5908","title":{"rendered":"I doubt I can be surprised"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>but I can be startled. Twice Saturday I scared up snakes- the first time I walked back to the Cushman and there was one laying right where I had been laying. At this point I was wearing Crocs and since I nearly stepped on the bastard I treated partner to a couple of steps of the traditional dance of my peoples. The second time we were putting some spare dirt on a hole where a stump is rotting, and a snake [popped out of there. I would have never done a thing except he turned and threatened me, and I decided, small though he was, he had crossed over the &#8220;live and let live&#8221; line. Both were thamnopis in nature, common as dirt and they swarm on my yard at certain times of the year.<\/p>\n<p>I am at this point moved to share with you some wisdom from Josh Billings, from &#8220;the complete works&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>STRIPED SNAKE.<\/p>\n<p>The striped snake iz one ov the slipperyest jobs that natur ever turned loose.<\/p>\n<p>They travel on the lower side ov themselfs, and kan slip out ov sight like blowing out a kandle. They were made for sum good purpose, but i never hav bin informed for what, unless it waz tew hav their heds smashed.<\/p>\n<p>They are sed tew be innocent, but they hav got a bad reputashun, and all the innocence in the world won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kure a bad reputashun.<\/p>\n<p>They liv in the grass but seldom git stept on, bekauze they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay long enuff in the right place.<br \/>\np. 130<br \/>\nWhen i waz a little boy, and wore naked feet, and waz loafing around loose for strawberrys, i waz often times just a going tew step on a striped snaik, but it alwus cured me ov strawberrys.<\/p>\n<p>If a striped snaik got into a 10-aker lot before i did, i alwus konsidered that all the strawberrys in that lot belonged tew the snaik.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fust cum, fust sarve,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was mi motto.<\/p>\n<p>I am just az fraid ov snaiks now az i waz 40 years ago, and if i should liv tew be az old az Nebudkennezer waz, and go tew grass as he did, one striped snaik would spile 50 akers ov good pasture for me.<\/p>\n<p>Wimmin don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t luv snaiks enny more than i do, and i respekt her for this.<\/p>\n<p>How on earth Eve waz seduced by a snaik, iz a fust class mistery tew me, and if i hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read it in the bible, i would bet aginst it.<\/p>\n<p>I beleave everything thare iz in the bible, the things i kant understand, I beleave the most.<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t swop oph the phaith i hav got for any living man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knoweledge.<\/p>\n<p>Snaiks are all sorts, and all sizes, and the smaller they are, the more i am afrade ov them.<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy a farm at haff price that had a striped snaik on it.<\/p>\n<p>Ded snaik are a weakness with me; i always respekt them, and whenever i see a ded one in the road, i dont drop a tear on him, but i drop another stone on him, for fear he might alter his mind and cum tew life agin, for a snaik hates tew die just az much az a kat duz.<\/p>\n<p>I never could ackount for a snaik or a kat hateing tew die so bad, unless it waz bekauze they waz so poorly prepared for deth<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>but I can be startled. Twice Saturday I scared up snakes- the first time I walked back to the Cushman and there was one laying right where I had been laying. At this point I was wearing Crocs and since I nearly stepped on the bastard I treated partner to a couple of steps of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}