The Daily Feather — Calling All Ophiophiles

“Snakes…why did it have to be snakes?”

-- Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark

Unlike Indiana Jones, an ‘ophiophile’ is a person who loves snakes. If you’re partial to slithering, we hear ball pythons make good pets. Growing up to five feet in length, they’re generally well-mannered, easy to handle, (usually) don’t bite and are characteristically docile. A diet of small frozen feeder mice or rats will suffice (just be sure to thaw them first). According to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, larger pythons in the wild are found in the ‘Old World’ – Africa, Asia and Australia. They’re drawn to rainforests, grasslands and savannas, woodlands, swamps, rocky outcrops, desert sand hills, and shrublands. Their diets differ a bit from the ball python variety you can keep at home. They constrict their prey which includes live (and unfrozen!) rodents, birds, lizards, and mammals like antelope, monkeys, wallabies or pigs.

‘Pig in a python’ is often used to describe the Baby Boom generation, created after World War II and with them, a demographic bulge that peaked in a U.S. population of 78.8 million in 1999. In the general sense, the phrase denotes a short-term increase. Yesterday’s U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) report was a case in point.