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TX-Snakes on a chain
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by tigers9 on February 3, 2009
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http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/02/snakes-on-a-chain.html
Snakes on a chain
2:44 PM Tue, Feb 03, 2009 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Emily Ramshaw E-mail News tips
As I was interviewing Rep. Susan King, R-Abilene, about the state schools this morning, I couldn't help but be drawn to her necklace. It featured the decapitated head of a real (dead) snake, resting right above her collar.
Then, as I headed down stairs, I passed a courtyard where a large crowd had gathered. Inside, two snake handlers monitored a pile of venomous snakes, some writhing, some sunning themselves.
Turns out the snake handlers are from Rep. King's district. (Didn't know we had official snake-handler day under the Pink Dome.) And the necklace, well, it just helps King get in the spirit.
And apparently, King is an old pro handling snakes. Here's what I learned from an Abilene Reporter News article:
Bleachers surround the center pit, where State Rep. Susan King looked something like a lion tamer. The energetic politician wore snakeskin pants tucked into black cowboy boots made of devil ray. Her red blazer was cinched at the waist with a brown belt and prominent buckle; in her right hand she held a snake-pinning hook, which resembled a golf club with an "L" at the end.
"I'm not too afraid of them," she said, smiling, before opening the door to the pit. "But I guess I should be."
King has handled snakes before, once on the floor of the state Capitol and another at the Round-Up. For a second year, King stood in the pit to take questions -- via closed-circuit television -- from school children.
While middle school students asked about global warming and snake anatomy, the representative kept an eye on the coiled muscles and scales that lay nearby.
"Snakes are not slimy, by the way: wonderful texture, very dry," she said into the microphone. "They talk of politicians being like snakes -- but that's because you never know what might happen."
And King is no novice snake handler. When she first saw a rattler 28 years ago, she was five months pregnant with her daughter, Helen, who was with her on Friday. Startled by a snake while hiking in New Mexico, King's husband -- Dr. Austin King -- killed, gutted and cooked it. Since then, King has kept two pet snakes in their home, feeding them and cleaning cages.
A few feet away, King stands beside a wooden stump, and Cecil Villa, a 40-year veteran of the Jaycees and the Round-Up, stretches a rattler across the table. With both hands wrapped around a machete and holding the blade above her shoulder, King swings down, chopping below the rattler's head and spraying droplets of blood onto her light blue coveralls.
It takes a few more chops -- and some sawing -- to sever its head.
"It's harder than it looks," she says.
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