Solitary And Secretive

Dear Blog,

In case you didn't know, I am a big fan of the TV series Wild America with Marty Stouffer. There is something about it that makes me wish that time was actually 25 years ago. But that's besides the point.

Yesterday I was watching a few episodes (we have all 12 seasons on DVD and I'm proud!) and Marty taught me something new. Something that I'm sure a select few of you might already know but what most of you believe to be false. A hoax. A tall tale. What is it?

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Are you ready?

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OK, here it goes...

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Remember going to girls' camp and every first year Beehive was led to believe everybody, every year loved to go snipe hunting so they would enthusiastically start beating sticks together searching for some rare animal they had never seen before only to find out that it was all a joke with everyone laughing at them? Remember that? Well, guess what!!! SNIPES ARE REAL!!!

I wish I could get you that footage from Wild America (it's from Season 8, Episode 7 "Olympic Odyssey" in case you wanted to check it out for yourself.) so this and this and the picture below will have to do.

The Snipe!

"Solitary and secretive, the snipe is rarely seen." ~ Marty Stouffer

Did you know that? Now, I'm not crazy (though I know that point could be argued) so you are just going to have to accept that the joke has always been on us, the people who thought snipes were some mythical prank and Mr. Fredrickson. Are you guys as floored right now as I was when I learned of this truth? Maybe it's just me but I find it amazing that the popular belief, that I am familiar with, is that these creatures don't really exist when they actually do. Amazing. How can that be? Any philosophers out there want to share their opinions on why this might be. How can we be so blind? I'm only partly kidding here. Hahaha!

So there is your daily trivia for the day. And if I'm the only one who didn't realize this, well then, I feel stupid.

Sincerely,

Emily Wilcock