For Snails, The Slimelight Is Fleeting

During our Tuesday visit, though, there was nary a stocking in sight.

"They came down, unfortunately," Ausema says. "We were cleaning up before everyone goes out of town for the holidays."

Perhaps it's for the best: Can you really appreciate your Christmas stocking when there's a date with an autoclave staring you in the face?

Actually, there is a more humane send-off option, according to snail pro Arthur Bogan, one of the country's leading malacologists and a curator at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

He recommends a period of refrigeration, followed by freezing. "That involves the least pain," Bogan says. "They're just quieting down, then they'll go to sleep."

Any extermination alternative isn't going to appeal to snail devotees -- the mollusks are kept as pets, Bogan observes, but they're not exactly cuddly enough to inspire panda-type passion.

"Most people have a problem with snails. They only have one foot," he says. "But it's better than a clam. It has one foot and no head."

How does Hamilton react to the snails' impending demise? "I don't feel great about it, if that's what you're asking."

Talking to museum visitors outside "Palimpsest," pro-snail sentiment was strong.

"They were big," says Tessa Townsend, 23, of Louisville. "I like them."

"I like them, too," adds her sister, Annie Kratzsch, 26, of Rockville.

The women are surprised to learn that the Hirshhorn is going to kill the snails.

"They are?" says Kratzsch, the corners of her mouth falling into a sad frown. "Is that necessary?"

"Poor little snails," Townsend says. "Well, I guess they get to eat a lot of cabbage while they're here."

Palimpsest at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW, through Jan. 3. Open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily except Christmas. Free. Call 202-633-1000 or go to http://hirshhorn.si.edu/ .