Things You Can Only Learn in a Children's Museum

So,I have a really good friend who runs our local children's museum. It's a great little museum, and the year-round family pass we purchased has been worth every single penny. My kids love going to climb on the giant pirate ship, using the oversized toothbrushes to do "oral surgery" on unfortunate and unsuspecting stuffed animals, and looking at all the cool critters that live there.

There is a ton more to do there, but I generally spend my time just keeping Pretty from letting the animals out, torturing other kids, or breaking her neck nose diving off the climbing wall. In other words, it's not like I get to do much playing there.

Anyway, like I said, my friend runs the museum. Her job is to make sure the animals are fed, parties are booked, exhibits are cared for, etc. She secured a grant to get some summer help from a local college. All but one of the students helping her are girls. Lots of estrogen runs through that place.

This past week, she got a call from one of her summer helpers that the ball python appeared to have legs sticking out from underneath him. After some research, they learned that snakes don't have legs (well, that wasn't much of a surprise), but instead that their "boy parts" appear to have two prongs that will stick out when the snake is aroused.

Here's where it gets really funny. The ladies asked the vet about why it would suddenly be that the snake was showing off his manhood. The vet asked a few questions, and then gave his answer. Snakes are able to sense pheromones, even from humans. Since all but one staff member at the museum are female and they were all on the same cycle, the snake was falling in love and ready to mate. Yep! You read it here first, people. The children's museum snake is all hot and bothered by his human handlers.

And that, my friends, is something that you can only learn at a children's museum.