In Chicago's suburban Brookfield Zoo, whence Curator of Reptiles Mrs. Grace Wiley last fortnight was discharged for letting a deadly Bandy-Bandy snake disappear completely (TIME, Sept. 30), zoo attendants combed the reptile house, while police prowled over surrounding country, mothers kept their children indoors. Finally, a cleaning man swept up the loose leaves that had blown into the reptile house, picked up an armful with Bandy-Bandy asleep in their midst. Meanwhile ebullient ex-Curator Wiley advised Chicagoans who want to bathe rattlesnakes, "Get them in a good humor first and then bathe in lukewarm water. They like to be dried with a soft towel. Be very gentle."
Tombstone
In Knoxville, Tenn.'s Asbury Cemetery, the parents of the late Pete Kreis, automobile racer killed in a test run at Indianapolis last year, finished installing over his grave an 11-ft.-by-5-ft. monument showing a racing car hurtling over a speedway retaining wall. Said his mother Ida: "Pete always liked things different."
Hay
In Marion, Kan., when his truckload of 77 bales of hay caught fire, John Spachek speeded up his truck, hit all bumps, bounced off all 77 blazing bales.
Explanation
In the Grand Coulee (Wash.) News, 'R. C." inserted an advertisement: "Found-lady's purse left in my car while parked. Owner can have same by describing property and paying for this ad. If owner can explain satisfactorily to my wife how purse got into car, will pay for ad myself."
Pockets
In York, S. C., Circuit Court Judge J. Henry Johnson asked for a law forbidding sale of trousers with hip pockets, so that "people wouldn't have such a handy place to carry a pistol."
Sheep
Outside Plains, Mont., E. C. Major's flock of sheep stampeded into the path of a locomotive, were hurled over the landscape, mowing down and killing Herder Major.
Shakespeare
In Manhattan's Doctors Hospital was found a patient named William Shakespeare, 54, Southampton, L. I. carpenter with gallstones. Said he: "My father was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, and he and my mother used to say that we are descendants of the old man. I got a hold of one of his plays years ago-Romeo and Juliet, I think-and I started to read it, but it didn't make sense to me. One of my boys I named William Shakespeare- after me, not the play writer. I don't take much stock in names. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as the fellow said."