Shaenon: Ed Gedeon, who’s quickly shaping up into the most prolific SH artist, produced this disturbingly cute illustration of one of the disturbingly adorable cobras. Don’t you want to give it a big poisonous hug?


Channing: Or possibly “venomous”. We had this discussion during the writing of “Borrowers” on the difference between “venomous” and “poisonous”, and how y’all totally would not cut us any slack are a group of highly literate and discerning fans who understand the subtle distinctions between the meanings of words. Eventually, the problem was solved by re-writing the line and removing the reference entirely. Yay for us!

So, yes. Ed, this is a distressingly cute cobra. Drink it in, adorable cobra fans.

(It’s just that “poisonous” is a much funnier word than “venomous”, is the problem.)