I come from a family of zoologists and birdwatchers. Because of this, I knew what a snipe was long before I ever heard of a snipe hunt. In fact, the first time I read about a snipe hunt, in what I believe was the Readers’ Digest book of American Folklore, my first reaction was how would that work? That would scare a snipe away in no time. I only learned that was the whole point quite a while later.

While this joke was always going to be about Hilda’s literalism. In my first draft, I had her telling Blossom there were no snipes in the Peninsula. But then I checked, and found out the Wilson’s Snipe is pretty common out here. Sharing my original ignorance over what a snipe hunt is works just fine, I guess.

In hindsight, it occurs to me that Hilda might not know what a snipe is either. At least, since the Jack Snipe, Common Snipe and Great Snipe are native to Switzerland, not by its English name.