Story Archive

Selfie Centered

Alex Gomez’s selfie shows him smiling, relaxed, and unconcerned. It was taken to show the rattlesnake he had just captured in the family’s backyard in Lake Elsinore, Calif. The snake was draped around his neck. “He must have loosened up his grip because it wiggled out and bit him on his thumb a couple times,” said his nephew, Ronnie Gomez. Gomez, 36, was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, and survived to tell the world what he had learned from his brush with death. “Don’t mess with snakes,” Gomez said. “Just leave them alone.” (RC/Riverside Press-Enterprise, KTLA Los Angeles) ...That isn’t really the ideal lesson to learn, but it’s a start.