To Pam Greene: A colleague originally from England once gave me a magazine article, which I did not keep, about this topic. I do not remember the source for certain, but I think it was Esquire or GQ, published probably about three years ago. The article described contests in Scotland between men whose goal was to be the one who could most withstand the pain of stuffing a ferret (I have to assume this was a polecat) down his pant legs and then being bitten repeatedly. The contests were timed; the guy who could stand this ordeal the longest won. All of the participants were very proud of the number of permanent scars they had retained from this activity. Personally, I thought this behavior was rather perverse and cruel to the animals as well, which is why I didn't save the article. You could probably find it in a public library. Linda [Moderator's note: An FMLer sent me a copy of the article last year. I don't have it handy now, but it was "Outside" magazine, and I think it was from the 1980's. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 1472]