For sale: One albino snake. Has two heads. Asking $150,000 or best offer.
The World Aquarium in St. Louis has been home to We, a one-of-a-kind two-headed albino rat snake, since 1999. Aquarium president Leonard Sonnenschein has decided to sell the reptile, and bidding on eBay will start at $150,000.
"It's an amazing snake," Sonnenschein said Monday. "When people see it they are awe-struck." The 61/2-year-old snake came to the aquarium's attention when its previous owner distributed a circular offering it for sale days after its birth. The aquarium paid $15,000 knowing most two-headed snakes don't live more than a few months.
But We has thrived. An inch thick and 4 feet long, she is a healthy size for a rat snake. Her body is white, but the heads have a reddish appearance.
We has survived because, unlike some two-headed animals, both mouths are connected to the same stomach, Sonnenschein said.
8 YEARS OLD AND CLIMBING
He's only 4 feet tall and 8 years old, but Aidan Gold is an experienced mountaineer who has left tracks on peaks in the Cascades, the Alps and the Himalayas.
Aidan climbed the 20,300-foot Island Peak in the Himalayas in November. That was the high point of the family's four-month climbing and hiking adventure, which took them from Switzerland to Katmandu, Nepal.
Aidan and his dad also reached the peak of 10,400-foot Haustock and 13,400-foot Monch in the Alps, and 17,200-foot Awi Peak near Everest. The whole family, including 5-year-old Janick, made it to the 17,700-foot Everest base camp.
Warren Gold, of Bothell, Wash., said he wanted to give his sons an appreciation of a world less touched by humans.
SEACREST SIGNS E! DEAL
"American Idol" host and radio disc jockey Ryan Seacrest signed a deal with E! Entertainment Television that includes producing and hosting the channel's red-carpet awards coverage.
Seacrest, who joined Dick Clark for ABC's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on Saturday and has called Clark a role model, appears to be emulating the veteran producer with the three-year E! contract, announced yesterday.
Seacrest will be executive producer of E!'s "Live From the Red Carpet," starting with the Golden Globes on Jan. 16. He'll share hosting duties with designer Isaac Mizrahi and E!'s Giuliana DePandi.
In March, Seacrest will become managing editor and lead anchor of "E! News," joining current anchor DePandi, E! said. He will produce series for the channel through his Ryan Seacrest Productions, and has the option of selling shows to other networks or channels.
