On the crowded rush-hour F train, I heard some shouting from the back of the car--not unusual, then somebody started joking about "snakes on a train". Only it wasn't a joke. This guy had an orange python in an insulated lunch bag. The guy next to him didn't say anything when he took it out and was waving it around, which was a lot cooler than I'd have been. One woman was deathly afraid of snakes. They called her Beyonce. Then the guy told this story about having a cat he hated, so he stopped feeding it, but it wouldn't go away. So he stopped feeding the snake . . . "Aw man, you can't be doing that!" said another passenger, "cats have nine lives, you're cutting the shit short!"