Correct Identification is Important

LawDog has an amusing story about mistaking a baby rattler for a bull snake. A couple of quotes:

Oh, bugger," think I, as I gaze in some consternation at the eighteen-inch long prairie rattler who is apparently expounding at length with regard to my ancestry, sexual habits and intelligence.

And

I will admit to executing a fast-ball pitch that would have made Nolan Ryan all misty-eyed, but I emphatically deny that I "screeched like a Newhaven fishwife" while doing so.

All's well that ends well, which is why it makes such a funny story.