TURTLES: It's a north-south thing

In response to Mr. Porter’s concern about the safety issues involved in the Clemson University student’s research on box turtles and drivers, as a many-decades ago Clemson grad, I can assure him that the skill set he describes is something that northerners cannot even begin to imagine- — or hope to acquire.

Beginning at an early age and with constant practice on targets large and small from guinea hens to snakes, frogs, and woolly brown caterpillars, Southern youth have taken the sport of flattening critters while keeping the pickup truck between the ditches to Olympic levels. By the time they get their drivers license, they’ve learned that box turtles are easy targets and it’s impossible to hit a guinea hen!

MARK DYMKOSKI

Rathdrum