Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    ...it could be a mixed drink, kind of like a strawberry daquiri.
    
    ...a slug that's yellow.
    
    ...a slug whose outer layers of skin can be peeled back.
    
    ...something you order out of the "Good Vibrations" catalogue (E,
    weren't you telling me something about this ?;-))
    
    
    ...a new kind of dance. Guess the Banana Slug won't go as fast as the
    Electric Boogie. It's a sluggish kind of dance movement :-)
    
    All this talk about bananas has me hungry...
    
    Laurie

    
    Although I'm not an expert on the banana slug, I have seen them quite
    often on my hikes in the mountains by Santa Cruz.  It's a yellow slug
    that's about 3-4 inches long (sometimes longer), about 1/2-1 inch wide,
    and it lives in the redwood coastal areas of northern California. 
    They're fun to pick up and play with, but they don't make very good
    pets at home because they quickly die after being taken out of their
    natural environment.  I believe they eat the bark that flakes off of
    the redwood trees.
    
    The students of the University of Santa Cruz recently (within the last
    couple of years) were petitioning to have their mascot changed from the
    grey harbor seal to the banana slug, and I think it might be the
    California state Mollusk.  
    
    They are thought of very highly in this region, and I do believe it is
    a violation of some sort to remove them from their natural environment.
    
    Kelly
    
    And I thought they were just trying to play "leap-frog"
                             

    
    I live in Arlington, MA and we have *huge* slugs. They're not banana
    slugs, but they might as well be. Actually it depends on how wet spring
    has been -- the wetter, the more and bigger they are (sometimes several
    inches). They tend to show up around dusk. People have told me about how 
    you can put out dishes of beer and they'll fall in and drown, but that 
    always sounded worse than coexisting with them...
    
    D.

    When I visited one of the rain forests on the Olympic Peninsula
    in the state of Washington, several banana slugs were seen.
    The tour guide said that another kind of slug (black and
    sleek) had been introduced to the area accidentally, and
    was now threatening to take over the habitat from the
    banana slug.  She said that the black slugs and the yellow
    slugs can sometimes been seen fighting one another.  To which
    I said, "Oh, would that be a...slug fest?"
    
    It got both groans and laughs.
    
    Richard

	I was *amazed* at the size of the slugs I saw in Germany.  Especially 
	in the Northern area, on the Baltic Sea.  Walking along paths thru the
	woods is a favorite passtime there.  On a walk with my Tante Bille,
	I encountered my first slug: I almost stepped on it. I'm embarrassed 
	to admit that I screamed and did a little dance in the middle of the
	path.  The natives were quite amused.

	Sue

    re:2
    For a while, there was a move in the California State Assembly to
    make the banana slug the official state mollusk, although there
    were strong protests from the abalone fisherman. I believe that
    ex-Gov. George Dukmejian killed the proposal; he was not noted for
    his sense of humor.
    
    A friend of mine who attended U.C. Santa Cruz had a Mastercard obtained
    through the univerisity, that was yellow, and covered with a repeat
    pattern of cartoon banana slugs smiling cheerfully. It is the funniest
    credit card I have seen.
    
    -roger
    

    Banana slugs are really neat.
    
    They have four horns on their heads (actually eye stalks, I believe)
    which they can up-periscope and down-periscope independently.
    Waving something over their head makes them retract and deploy the
    horns so they look like a fast-motion nature film of something growing.
    
    They also leave amazing trails.
    
    I was camped in a redwood park in Northern California (which has by now
    been reduced to picnic tables and decks).  In the morning, early, I
    woke to find the area covered with silver ribbons that glowed in
    the dew and early sunshine. 
    
    I walked toward the ocean and eventually came to a banana slug party.
    (I had NO idea until now what some of them may have been up to.)
    A few were off by themselves (the ugly slugs :^) and it was with those
    that I discovered the horn movements.  When the sun got higher some
    of them started crisping.  I tried to save a few but they are not
    easy to pick up.  I finally left them to Darwin as they would and
    went back to camp to start coffee.

    I checked my sleeping bag; it was okay, no ribbons.  I have no
    idea if it was the ground cloth or the Cutter that kept them from
    yucching all over me.   
    
         Margaret

    
    
    I am told they make excellent jerky...

    .9 Gross!!!