ST. LOUIS (AP) – 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. President Leonard Sonnenschein has decided to sell the reptile, and bidding on e-Bay will start at $150,000.

“It’s an amazing snake,” Sonnenschein said Monday. “When people see it they are awe-struck.”

The auction was expected to close within 10 days.

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 survived and 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.

The snake has been in the spotlight before. In 2004, a disgruntled City Museum worker stole We. Authorities found the snake in the garage of the man’s home in Illinois.

“He thought he was going to sell it,” Sonnenschein said. “The thing is, it’s the only one in the world.”

—

On the Net:

http://www.worldaquarium.net

Dear Uncle Sam, I’m not dead yet

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) – Thelma Saberniak has a message for Uncle Sam: She’s not dead.

The 82-year-old learned of her supposed demise when she tried to apply for Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit last month. She also has lost her monthly Social Security checks.

“I supposedly died Nov. 19,” she told The Times of Munster for a Sunday story.

Social Security records show Saberniak recently moved to Arizona, even though she has lived in a Chicago-area nursing home for two years.

Carmen Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration in Chicago, said there is no way to tell how the mistake was made. She said once Saberniak’s identity can be verified, the agency will work to restore her benefits “expeditiously.”

“I lie awake at night not knowing whether they’ll recognize that I am alive,” Saberniak said.

With $12,000 in medical bills, Saberniak said she’s borrowing money from children and drawing from her savings.

Young climber goes for the top

BOTHELL, Wash. (AP) – 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.

Aidan said the toughest stretch for him was a 45-degree face on Haustock.

“It’s the worse 3,000 feet I’ve ever done,” he said.

Warren Gold said he wanted to give his sons an appreciation of a world less touched by humans. For his part, Aidan says he likes climbing for the challenge … and the view.