[TriLUG] OT: what is this cable?

[Aaron Joyner]

There is a good and very memorable rhyme, which I was taught as a child.
It is helpful for those who might encounter coral and/or king snakes:
Red on Black, Friend of Jack
Red on Yellow, Kill a fellow

I do not mean to cast doubt on Steve's story, I only pass it along because
it's common to find king snakes in the Piedmont area of NC, and very
unusual to find coral snakes.  Regardless, it's helpful to remember the
rhyme, both to avoid unnecessary panic and/or unnecessary danger.  I seem
to recall Steve has more than a passing association with Florida, where
it's much more common to encounter coral snakes.  They are found in NC, but
mostly by the coast.

Aaron S. Joyner

Additional reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_snake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampropeltis_elapsoides
http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/Micful/Mic_ful.html

On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:37:31 -0400
> David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I rototilled my yard and planted grass. But right beside the curb I
> > accidentally dug up the end of an odd electrical cable. It looks like
> > it probably goes under my driveway.
> >
> > Neither I nor either of my next-door neighbors had any utilities go
> > out when I dug this up. I don't know whether I severed it or it was
> > already severed. Does anyone know what it is?
>
> A few years ago I had an equally puzzling weird wire. Early morning,
> not wearing my glasses, I saw a strange wire sticking out of my pool
> timer motor box. It looked to have cloth insulation like ancient wiring
> (going back to knob and tube), but the insulation was bright colors,
> yellow black and red. The wire was about 1/2 cm thick (that's pretty
> darn thick), and very stiff.
>
> Still without my glasses, I opened the timer box, and started noodling
> the wire out. Finally it came out, but it was teed onto a smaller black
> wire somewhat similar. As I pulled it out, my stomach turned
> sommersaults.
>
> The colorful wire was the remaining half of a coral snake, featuring
> some of the deadliest venom in North America, currently with no
> available antivenom. The black wire was a smaller snake, in the mouth
> of the coral snake.
>
> The coral snake had chased the little black snake into my timer, bitten
> and killed the black snake, but before he could make a meal of it, the
> timer motor gears, in perfect Edgar Allen Poe fashion, slowly cut the
> coral snake in half, probably over the course of a couple hours.
>
> Eeeeuuuuuu!
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
> Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance
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