Luckily there were no venomous snakes around Hoosick, N.Y., so I amassed quite a collection of milk snakes, garters, ribbons and ring-necked snakes. Romulus Whitaker More Quotes by Romulus Whitaker More Quotes From Romulus Whitaker I'd like to make it very clear that getting bitten by a venomous snake is dumb, clumsy and nothing to be proud of. Romulus Whitaker snake nothing proud dumb Years ago, it was pretty hard to get people to empathize even a little bit with scaly, cold-blooded critters; now, thanks a lot to good PR from television, it is easier to get the message of reptile conservation and tolerance across. We have a lot to be thankful to reptiles for, not the least of which is their control of rodents. Romulus Whitaker good tolerance thankful people I spent my childhood in northern New York State, and like many kids, bugs and other critters fascinated me. Romulus Whitaker new me childhood new-york