Jabberwocky for 2004 April 10

Gettysburg of Snails: I started out high tech, wearing the latest in surgical gloves (the latest in latex!) and picking them precisely off the plants. I shifted to low tech, mashing them with a trowel. In the end, I employed the D'Medici Method, and there was a small "whoosh" at my side. A tiny hunched over figure in a hooded black cloak, carrying a miniature scythe, had skooched up on a silvery mucous trail. YES? he said. YOU WERE EXPECTING ME?