Comments on: Mmmm, You Dirty Rat!

By: mand

mand — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:10:20 +0000

@ A C – a kindred spirit!

‘They happily hoard, steal, and hide food from others. Though I don’t think they actually fight over it’ – no more than humans, anyway, when starving. ;0)

By: mand

mand — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:48:53 +0000

Personally i like rats – wild ones included. They’ve got a living to make, after all. And i know they carry diseases. Humans carry diseases too!

Mind you, if we had rats in the roof i’d still call pest control.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:35:00 +0000

I just learned a new one, rat-rod, from my son-in-law. He just got a new cab for his project car. When I asked what colour it would be he responded with primer black since it was going to be a rat-rod.

Here is Wikipedia’s definition:
A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. It is not to be confused with the somewhat closely related “traditional” hot rod, which is an accurate re-creation or period-correct restoration of a hot rod from the same era.

Most rat rods appear “unfinished” (whether they actually are or are not), with just the bare essentials to be driven.

The rat rod is the visualization of the idea of function over form. Rat rods are meant to be driven, not shown off. Sometimes the customization will include using spare parts, or parts from another car altogether.

Something to ad to the “rat list”.

By: A C

A C — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:13:10 +0000

In fact, it’s more than just white rats that make good pets. We have a beige spotted rat, a black and white hooded rat, and a hairless rat. As I understand it, white rats are mostly lab rats. Even wild rats are basically social and clean, they just happen to live in filthy environments as scavengers of our waste.

Of course, they happily hoard, steal, and hide food from others. Though I don’t think they actually fight over it.

By: T. Grillo

T. Grillo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:18:09 +0000

This one was very entertaining, Maeve. Thanks! I once gave my 5th grade students an English assignment along these same lines – using the word ’sweep.’ They really had fun with it.