EIGHT BILLION PEOPLE INHABIT PLANET EARTH.
Thirty million live in Texas. Residents of the town of Silsbee, just west of the Louisiana state line, number roughly 7,000. Let's estimate, for the sake of argument, that on any given Tuesday evening, 20 of those Silsbee residents are out cutting their grass. Out of all those 20 mowers and 7,000 Silsbee residents and 30 million Texans and 8 billion humans, only one that we know of, 65-year-old Peggy Jones, was unlucky enough to have a living, writhing snake fall out of the sky and onto her.
The story only gets weirder.
Peggy and her husband, Wendell Jones, were tending a property they own just outside the Silsbee city limits on July 25, 2023. Wendell was out front, weed-eating, while Peggy drove a tractor (Kubota, 26 horsepower) pulling a mowing machine around the big piece of open land out back. They'd waited till evening to do the work, avoiding the nearly 100-degree temperatures of the afternoon.
Out of sight and earshot of Wendell, Peggy was lost in thought, hands on the wheel, when suddenly a 3½-to-4-foot snake dropped out of the clear blue sky onto her right forearm.
This is not something one expects to happen. "At that particular moment, I don't know if I realized it was a snake," Peggy says. "You're out here, there's grasshoppers and little flying bugs, so you automatically just kind of sling it off. Just an automatic reaction. And that's exactly what I did." But this creature did not sling. It clung, having immediately coiled itself tightly around her arm. A millisecond later, when she realized that the creature on her arm was a snake-and a big one-she shrieked, and flailed more wildly.
She had no idea what kind of snake the heavens had favored her with, nor did she much care to know. "To me," she says, "a snake is a snake."
Denne historien er fra June 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra June 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Do You Kiss Your Dog? - Find out how gross your questionable habits really are, according to health experts
I admit it, when it comes to food, I have some eeew-inducing practices, like skimming mold off old cheddar and feeding the rest to my unsuspecting family. We're still alive, so how bad can it be? Because our gross human habits fall somewhere along the spectrum from mildly cringeworthy to full-on repulsive, I reached out to experts to find out where some common behaviors land on the gross-o-meter.
What's Ailing Our Doctors? - Today's physicians are burned out and battered by spreadsheets. We patients suffer too.
Today’s physicians are burned out and battered by spreadsheets. We patients suffer too. America's doctors are in crisis. Six in 10 physicians say they're burned out, with burnout rates for some specialties, such as primary care, reaching 70%. When polled by the American Medical Association, 40% of doctors said they were considering leaving their practices in the next two years. Another study, conducted by health-care industry publisher Elsevier, revealed concerns about mental health and burnout: 63% of med students in the United States reported that they had no intention of practicing clinical medicine after graduation and will instead work as lab researchers or academics. This is despite a predicted shortage of 124,000 physicians over the next 10 years.
Now Hear This
Losing your hearing suddenly, even if there is no pain, is always urgent
Go for the Gumbo
The soulful stew synonymous with Louisiana is delicious anywhere you eat it
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
Pinned by a giant boulder, a hiker had two choices: panic or gut it out. He did both.
Fathers of the Bride
A young woman finds a unique way to honor the many men who helped her survive her childhood
MY SMART PET
These clever critters are some smart C-O-O-K-I-E-S
How Hobbies Help Us
Far from a waste of time, pastimes are good for body, brain and spirit
1+1 = MORE (or LESS)
A math whiz encourages you to play with your numbers
That Kind of Time
A dressing-room encounter made me get real about aging