Python

This one should really be called "Afternoon Uh-oh. " Or maybe, "Afternoon Oh-no!" A python is getting up-close-and-personal with a fuzzy little bunny before the annual "Hund & Heimtier" pet fair in Germany. As far as I know, no bunnies were harmed in the making of this photo op.  

A python estimated to be about 7 feet long was located along a roadway in Towson on Sunday night, according to Baltimore County police. Shortly after 9:30 p.m., police received a call from a local resident who said he had seen the snake on the roadway in the 1300 block of Taylor Avenue. By the time police responded, the snake had moved into a nearby bush, a police dispatcher said. Animal control was then called to remove the snake from the neighborhood, the dispatcher said.

A python estimated to be about 7 feet long was located along a roadway in Towson on Sunday night, according to Baltimore County police. Shortly after 9:30 p.m., police received a call from a local resident who said he had seen the snake on the roadway in the 1300 block of Taylor Avenue. By the time police responded, the snake had moved into a nearby bush, a police dispatcher said. Animal control was then called to remove the snake from the neighborhood, the dispatcher said.

The gang at the Corner BYOB is getting ready for its second Gastronaut Society dinner, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17. On the menu this time -- python, razor clams, muskrat, duck tongue, wreckfish and antelope fillet stuffed with foie gras. The Jan. 17 Gastronaut Society dinner is $125 and $95 for Gastronaut Society members. Members get first notice of the dinners, which Cecile Fenix over at Corner BYOB tells me fill up pretty fast. For information about joining the Gastronaut Society, send an email to meetme@cornerbyob.com.

Monty Python's Flying Circus, which first assaulted British sensibilities in 1969, made its American TV debut in 1974 -- in Dallas, of all places. "It was extraordinary," troupe member Eric Idle says. "I mean, for us it was just an amazement that people were watching it in Dallas ... and were loving it. And then it spread, you know, went around the PBS network." Monty Python is still being spread thick. The reigning Tony Award winner as Broadway's best musical is Spamalot. DVD collections also continue to proliferate, even though the five surviving Pythons (Graham Chapman died in 1989)

The gang at the Corner BYOB is getting ready for its second Gastronaut Society dinner, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 17. On the menu this time -- python, razor clams, muskrat, duck tongue, wreckfish and antelope fillet stuffed with foie gras. The Jan. 17 Gastronaut Society dinner is $125 and $95 for Gastronaut Society members. Members get first notice of the dinners, which Cecile Fenix over at Corner BYOB tells me fill up pretty fast. For information about joining the Gastronaut Society, send an email to meetme@cornerbyob.com.

Inever thought Monty Python's Life of Brian was the troupe's best movie, but after enduring the thunderous certainties of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, watching the Pythons encircle the same story with anarchic arguments worthy of Groucho (and Karl) Marx is a joyous and reviving experience. (It reopens today at the Charles.) How refreshing: Spats and vicious commentary are the comic backbone of this picture, not tools for its publicity. This fractured religious fairy tale of a reluctant Messiah born next door to Jesus premiered in 1979 to the usual charges of blasphemy.

Don’t be fooled by the photo of the python and bikini-clad lady curled up on the couch. Vegas was all work, no play for City Council President Jack Young . Young, who long considered the annual Vegas shoppingcenter convention a junket, attended for the first time Sunday and Monday. “I thought it was a lot of fun and games; no fun and games,” Young told me Wednesday. “I used to criticize those types of trips. It’s work. Maybe 45 minutes, maybe less than that, you have a chance to sit down and eat, and even then you’re talking to developers.” Young said he spend his two days in Vegas talking to representatives of Wal-Mart, Harris Teeter and other retailers interested in expanding in Baltimore.

The holidays are history, but you still can find that unusual gift for the person who has everything.And you most likely won't find this gift at any after-Christmas sale.If you're serious about endearing yourself to that special someone, why not do it with a lovable 4-foot python named Nightmare?And, heck, if you find a limbless reptile irresistible, keep her for yourself, says 15-year-old Jason Martin, a Silver Run resident who's trying to sell the creature.This is no ordinary python like you'd find in a pet shop, he says.

Forget florals. Ditch the dots. Lose the leopard: Python is the pattern of the moment, and for good reason. Python looks feminine and strong. It's fun, flirty and modern, not to mention sexy, exotic and just a little dangerous. "You have to be brave to wear it," says Toni James, who has stocked her cozy, fashion-forward store, Katwalk, on East Read Street with python pants, skirts and jackets in tangerine, teal and fuchsia embossed leather by Oscar Leopold, Anja Flint and other designers.

This one should really be called "Afternoon Uh-oh. " Or maybe, "Afternoon Oh-no!" A python is getting up-close-and-personal with a fuzzy little bunny before the annual "Hund & Heimtier" pet fair in Germany. As far as I know, no bunnies were harmed in the making of this photo op.  

Don’t be fooled by the photo of the python and bikini-clad lady curled up on the couch. Vegas was all work, no play for City Council President Jack Young . Young, who long considered the annual Vegas shoppingcenter convention a junket, attended for the first time Sunday and Monday. “I thought it was a lot of fun and games; no fun and games,” Young told me Wednesday. “I used to criticize those types of trips. It’s work. Maybe 45 minutes, maybe less than that, you have a chance to sit down and eat, and even then you’re talking to developers.” Young said he spend his two days in Vegas talking to representatives of Wal-Mart, Harris Teeter and other retailers interested in expanding in Baltimore.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne wrapped up his session with the media at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center on Wednesday by retelling the story of how Ravens free safety Ed Reed killed Wayne's pet snake. While Wayne was a rookie with the Colts in 2001, he left his 9-foot pet green Burmese python named "Law" with Reed, who was a senior at the University of Miami and Wayne's roommate. One day, according to Wayne, he got a text message from Reed, saying, "Law's dead."

Who hasn't this happened to? You're in a snake cave on an Indonesian island and up to your belly in liquefied bat guano (don't ask). A 7-foot reticulated python - the object of your smelly search - coils around your legs and you are sinking in this quicksand, and the python, not caring about your well being at all, bites you rather high on your right leg with his flesh-ripping teeth. "Ahhhhhh! He's on me! He's bitten me! Where is his head??? Grab his head!!!!!" Now that's reality TV. And those are the words of Severna Park's Brady Barr, herpetologist and host of National Geographic Channel's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr nature series.

Spam, anyone? The word has taken on new meaning since the British comedy troupe Monty Python began riffing on it several decades ago. No longer merely a processed pork product, spam also refers to junk e-mail. It's a definition that would probably be even more delectable to the Pythons, whose Tony Award-winning musical, Spamalot, is delectably silly, refreshingly politically incorrect and just plain funny. If you go Monty Python's Spamalotruns through March 18 at the Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St. $34-$79.

Taunting Frenchmen and a killer rabbit are at the gates of Baltimore. The touring company of Monty Python's Spamalot begins its 16-show run tonight at the Hippodrome Theatre. Spamalot, which opened on Broadway two years ago, is "lovingly ripped off" from the British comedy troupe's 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail - with other brave and strong bits thrown in. Spamalot runs today through March 18, times vary, Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. Tickets, $30-$75, at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.

Who hasn't this happened to? You're in a snake cave on an Indonesian island and up to your belly in liquefied bat guano (don't ask). A 7-foot reticulated python - the object of your smelly search - coils around your legs and you are sinking in this quicksand, and the python, not caring about your well being at all, bites you rather high on your right leg with his flesh-ripping teeth. "Ahhhhhh! He's on me! He's bitten me! Where is his head??? Grab his head!!!!!" Now that's reality TV. And those are the words of Severna Park's Brady Barr, herpetologist and host of National Geographic Channel's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr nature series.

A Parkville man was forced to kill his pet 15-foot Indian python early today after the snake clamped its jaws around the man's arm and refused to let go.Baltimore County police said Gary Vail, 29, of 3019 Texas Ave., was bitten on both sides of his right forearm and was treated at the scene by the crew of a Fire Department ambulance.Like all pythons, the snake was non-venomous. However, a python's mouth is filled with numerous teeth and its grip is strong.Known to reach lengths of more than 20 feet, pythons kill their prey by wrapping themselves around them and forcing the air out of their lungs.

THEATER 'SPAMALOT' Baltimoreans -- and Monty Python fans in particular -- can look on the bright side beginning Tuesday when Spamalot opens a two-week run at the Hippodrome Theatre. Billed as "lovingly ripped off" from the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Tony Award-winning musical offers the British comedy troupe's off-kilter account of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, complete with such Python trademarks as killer bunnies, coconut-induced sound effects, knights who say "ni" and, of course, the ever-cheerful number, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

MIAMI -- A year after two bodies were discovered locked in gruesome embrace deep in the marsh, a television documentary attempts to solve a mystery since burned into Everglades lore. Did a giant python really explode after swallowing an alligator? And what ate the snake's head? The National Geographic Explorer show examines what happened last September when a 13-foot Burmese python ate a 6-foot gator in Everglades National Park. The extraordinary encounter was captured in a memorable macabre photo that captivated the public and experts alike, and - for a week, at least - made "alligator-python" among the most Googled phrases on the planet.