Speaking of things I have little patience for (see two items down), owners of "exotic" pets drive me crazy. (That thought is prompted by a story about an escaped "pet" lion in Ohio.)

The need to define yourself by having an animal different from those owned by people nearby - sorry, that’s pathetic. And the rest of us pay the price: havoc from escaped exotics is a small but important part of the problem of invasive species. Our climate has limited the escaped-animal problem to an extent, but escaped "ornamental" plants like purple loosestrife are an issue.

Sort of Related Item: I wish I could attend the Snakes of the Northeast Conference behind held this weekend at UMass-Amherst. This isn’t for "put a snake in a cage and think it makes me cool" people - it’s for researchers working with local snakes in the wild, including the urban-legend-ish timber rattlers of New Hampshire.