Dear list,

I gave my daughter the videos of the third season of Monty Python's Flying
Circus.

There's a sketch in which a couple are bored with their TV so the husband
smashes his TV.

Doorbell rings and in comes John Cleese, who sets up a cardboard TV prop. He
begins to explain molluscan taxonomics from the cut-out screen. The couple
start reacting: "This is really boring." "Dreadful."

Cleese modifies his show and begins talking about molluscan sex lives."The
limpet is a particularly randy little creature." The couple is scandalized
but fascinated and try to turn up the volume.

Another instance of mollusks in high culture.

Happy holidays!

David Kirsh
Durham, NC