After the meeting of the municipal council this evening, Rudi Handjal and I had a drink with Mirjan Rimanić, who covers council meetings in Motovun for the local newspaper. We talked about all sorts of things, but one of Rimanić’s stories will stay with me for a while. Together with his family, he lives in the woods not far from Pazin. “We have deer, rabbits, and snakes right at our doorstep,” he said. “Recently I saw snakes mating next to the house,” he laughed. “They wind around each other and almost stand up on their tails.” “In other words,” I jumped in at once, “the symbol of medicine showing two snakes winding around a staff is bordering on pornography!” “Exactly,” he laughed, “that’s exactly how it looks!” I was delighted. As soon as I returned home, I searched for the symbol on the World Wide Web. I gave up soon enough, though, for there is much disagreement about it. According to some scholars, the proper symbol of medicine involves a single snake winding up a staff, but the fact remains that two snakes appear most often in official symbols. At any rate, I have found not a single reference suggesting that the winding snakes are mating. The medical profession is beyond such silly stuff, of course. Pornography, what pornography?