When my daughter recently was assigned the anaconda snake as a
topic for a school assignment, I was enlisted to assist, if only
by doing our modern lazy form of research, i.e. Google. The
lowest form of parenting is pointing out the correct book
without revisiting it yourself at all. To avoid being tarred
that way, I did a quick scan of the basic info. To my shock, the
section (in Encarta, the kid-friendly encyclopedia) on physical
characteristics begins thus: "Like boas and pythons, anacondas
retain primitive features that indicate ancient lizard
ancestors. The snakes have traces of a pelvis and hind limbs."
As a child in Hebrew School, we studied the story of the snake
in the Garden of Eden. We were taught the Biblical text along
with the Jewish traditional exegesis. The full story is that the
snake was an upright animal who stood on legs and was attracted
to Eve. His scheme was based on enticing her with this fruit,
eventually luring her away from her husband. When he was
punished, God tells him (Genesis 3