Well I don't know about all of you, but I had cone nightmares last night after
reading all your E mails about how to handle them.  I was on Fiji all ready for
my cone collecting adventure.  I had dressed properly to collect them in 4-inch
thick diving skins, 6-foot long tongs with micro-camera attached for cone
identification, hiking boots, steel-lined gloves, and vintage Saturday Night
Live conehead helmet (for a little camoflouge).  Couldn't move real well and the
Fijians all came out in numbers to gawk but I wasn't gonna let those big bad
cones get me!  Had 3 milk jugs stacked inside each other with X slots all neatly
done.  Figured no harpoon could get through that.  Had a banner day shelling.
Wrapped all the cones in toilet paper, triple zip locked bags, chux wash rags,
and everything else all of you had recommended and put the cones into the jugs.
Best of all, they were all very clean specimens, so I knew I wouldn't have to
worry about acids and bleaches and oils and dental picks, and toilet bowl
cleaner etc etc when I got home.  I put the milk jug in our hotel room for
safekeeping but forgot:  Cones are nocturnal creatures!!  We went to bed and
they woke up!  They got loose and were running amok across the floor and
climbing up the bed clothes proboscis outstretched looking for their captors.
They were sliming their way across our bodies stinging away to their hearts
content.  I couldn't move--couldn't breathe--and as each 5 minutes passed by I
was becoming more and more paralyzed.  And I knew I was going to be the next
statistic on Dr. Livett's home page about fatal cone stings.  I wanted to scream
but my vocal chords were not working!  Finally I woke up in a cold sweat and
grabbed for my arms, my legs, my head--Yes!  They were really there and I could
feel them!  Whew!  Boy, was really glad to wake up alive!   Hope my real
experience will be better than my dream!