SWEETWATER, Texas (AP) – James Wells and his 1,200 pounds of rattlesnakes were first in line for the annual Rattlesnake Roundup in this small West Texas town.

Wells, from nearby Roscoe, has been collecting Western Diamondback rattlesnakes for 25 of the roundup’s 48 years and was waiting before 7 a.m. to garner premium prices – $5 per pound – for the first 2,000 pounds of rattlers turned in.

“It gets in your blood,” said Wells, 73. “If you’re doing it for the money, you’re going to go into the hole. We do it more for the sport.”

The event, officially known as the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, started as a way to control the poisonous reptiles in the area but has grown into a four-day attraction that brings about 30,000 visitors and an economic impact of more than $5 million.

Besides the roundup, there’s a parade, a snake charmer pageant, a snake meat eating contest and snake-handling demonstrations, which are aimed at educating adults and children about the ways of rattlers. There’s also a demo on how to skin a rattler in preparation for cooking or to use the skins.

People come from across the nation and from other counties to take in the event. Hotel rooms are booked about a year ahead of the roundup, which is always the second weekend in March.

“It’s what we’re known for,” said Lynn Adams, executive director of the Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce. “Nobody bad-mouths the roundup.”

The roundup is organized by the Sweetwater Jaycees, and the money funds events the group sponsors throughout the year.

Since 1958, those who’ve rounded up the snakes have brought in more than 132 tons of the reptiles. The record came in 1982 when 17,986 pounds were tallied. Texas A&M University researchers have said the roundup pulls about 1 percent of the state’s Western Diamondback population.

Mass. bottle note lands in Morocco

LYNN, Mass. (AP) – A message in a bottle launched in Lynn two years ago traveled halfway around the world. In a letter postmarked from Morocco, 26-year-old Assila Ahmed wrote that he’d found a bottle thrown into the water by Genevive Hernandez of Lynn.

Hernandez, now 13, was among a group of fifth-graders who on Nov. 20, 2003 put messages in bottles and cast them off from Lynn’s shores. Hernandez said she’s amazed that her Sprite bottle made it as far as it did since most of them either bounced right back to shore or ended up only as far as the Cape.

Students received replies from 14 people before Hernandez received hers. Most were from the Cape Cod area. One made it as far as England. But Hernandez’s bottle had, by far, the longest journey, traveling 3,500 miles.

In the letter to Hernandez, Ahmed said he found the bottle about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, 2005. Hernandez’ bright orange card wrapped in plastic bore the address of the Brickett School in Lynn, where she attended classes two years ago.

The only request from the African man: a letter back from Hernandez. Hernandez’s fifth-grade teacher at Brickett, Sheila Thomas, said he will get one.

Company buys ad on pregnant belly

ST. LOUIS (AP) – If the human body is the last frontier for advertising space, then St. Louis resident Asia Francis is helping chart new territory – the big, pregnant belly.

Francis, 21, auctioned off the advertising rights to her pregnancy on eBay. The winning bid of $1,000 went to a California Internet company, giving it exclusive rights to temporarily tattoo its brand-name on Francis’s belly and broadcast the birth of her daughter live on the Internet. The baby is due any day.

The concept of a human billboard is hardly new. Andrew Fischer, 21, of Omaha, Neb., earned more than $37,000 last year by bearing a corporate logo on his forehead for a month. Michele Hutchison of Lanhorne, Pa., auctioned ad rights for her baby’s clothing on eBay last year, seeking $1,000 for a month’s lease.

For big companies, the idea is simple. Do something outrageous or strange, grab some media attention and cut through the clutter of advertising messages that bombards consumers. “It’s a well-held theory in the advertising industry that the average person on the street receives up to 3,000 branded messages a day,” said Floyd Hayes, whose New York advertising firm, Cunning Communications, specializes in media stunts.

The pregnant belly is prime real estate for auction because its likely to get people talking, Hayes said. “If they were to buy the free coverage they will receive for this, it would cost them many times more the fee they paid the person,” he said.