The Milwaukee Public Museum has just announced that the rattlesnake in its second floor bison hunt exhibition has fled the scene.
According to the release, the snake has gone on vacation, and has apparently been in contact with museum officials.
"I get more action than anyone here at MPM," the release quotes the snake as saying. "T-rex and the butterflies will try to tell you different, but visitors young and old are pushing my button all day long! With that much attention, it breaks down a lot. When it stopped working yesterday, I called my snake handler and said this had to stop. I can’t disappoint my public!"
Sounds like a mix of protest and vacation on the part of the snake, which clearly feels a responsibility to its fans. Apparently, the sooner the museum raises some funds to fix his button, the snake will return to the museum.
You can make a donation here to help fix the snake button and bring the snake back.
While he's away -- he's expected home on Friday, Aug. 29 -- you can follow the snake's adventures on Twitter.
I wonder if he took his downstairs colleague with him...
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
