[Paul R.]

Heh, when she came here, my wife, who is a Filipina, thought turtles were these sweet, passive, endangered creatures. When I mentioned having caught one and "next time maybe I should keep it and have you make soup out of it", you'd have thought I was proposing that we make soup out of one of my sisters-in-law.

Then one day we saw a good size - maybe 30 lb. snapper on a local road. My wife wanted me to get it off the road so it would not be hit. "Naturally" it did it's typical hissing, lunging / snapping at me... I decided the best bet was to grab a stick and let the thing chomp down on that: I did, the snapper obliged and held on, and I safely dragged the beastie well off the road.

My wife was freaked out, helped by the turtle biting off the end of the 1st stick I tried. (Well, it was a bit rotted.) So much for her love of turtles, although this thing being so ugly, she still doesn't want to try eating one.

Too bad: In my teens, my Dad and I cleaned one to eat. We had it down to the shell and one leg still attached, and the leg was still moving a bit. I can imagine Wifey's reaction to that...

Prolly good fresh food for a Klingon, though!

[Rockingham]

Your account confirms my view that, like the citizens of the USA, our wildlife is superior in fighting qualities and tenacity to the effete and timorous wildlife of the rest of the world.