SLITHER AND YON

Check out page 40 of the November issue of Phoenix Magazine for my story on Phoenix Herpetological Society, an amazing shelter for reptiles northeast of town. Or, you can read it here.

In honor of the place…

Monster-of-the-Week: …this week let’s recognize the title character of The Giant Gila Monster…

In this Texas-made 1959 low-budgeter, our hot-rodding hero must take on the enormous reptilian menace, in between making time with his best girl and performing some pretty interesting early rock. The flick may be watched in its entirety, here.

It should be noted that the huge beast is played not by an actual Gila monster but by the Gila monster’s larger, likewise venomous south-of-the-border cousin, the Mexican beaded lizard. Phoenix Herpetological Society has both species in residence.