I'd like to make it very clear that getting bitten by a venomous snake is dumb, clumsy and nothing to be proud of.

Luckily there were no venomous snakes around Hoosick, N.Y., so I amassed quite a collection of milk snakes, garters, ribbons and ring-necked snakes.

I spent my childhood in northern New York State, and like many kids, bugs and other critters fascinated me.

He who has been bitten by a snake is afraid of an eel

Years ago, it was pretty hard to get people to empathize even a little bit with scaly, cold-blooded critters; now, thanks a lot to good PR from television, it is easier to get the message of reptile conservation and tolerance across. We have a lot to be thankful to reptiles for, not the least of which is their control of rodents.

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.