The Reluctant Whore

Isn't there some hilariously welcoming joke about London that suggests that no matter where you are in the city you're always no further than 3 feet from a rat? It's something really charming like that that leaves a really clean, calm feeling with you the minute you step out of Heathrow.

Whether or not you're always 3 feet from a rat at all times while in New York City (and honestly, depending on how neurotic you are is that SO unlikely? Back off London!) Gotham does seem to have suddenly become home to an increasing number of rodents who appear extremely happy to be put on TV and in print media.

Regardless, while the first beaver was just spotted in the Bronx River after a two hundred year haitus for beavers in New York City which is a nice surprise for us all, a dozen Rats are, probably this very minute, busy enjoying the Taco Bell they've apparently taken over on 4th Street and 6th Avenue - and that's a nice HORRIFYING surprise for us all. So, it's all rodent surprises today.

When you think about it, this is probably something that could only happen in the US so, in many ways, the UK hasn't lost out when it comes to how much it forces you to confront rodent-culture, it's just that the UK doesn't have the cultural predisposition towards mindless celebrity that the US does so, perhaps rat culture on either side of the pond can't really be compared.

New York rats are the kind of rats who will eat your face and scream with delight if you try and stop them in an effort to shock you into compliance - so a dozen of them inside a fast food restaurant in the West Village is really a horrifyingly zoo esque coup experience.

Yahoo graciously not only posted about how you could stand at the window and marvel at the health threat, they also provided several links to local news coverage, included in which was footage of the Daily News and New York Post busily snapping shots of the publicity hungry rodents as they scurried around. So, you have footage within footage within footage. Plus, you also have coverage of footage being collected.

Are these rats simply the first animals to stage a conscious publicity stunt in light of gauging the way humans act in order to get publicity? Yes, there is no doubt at all that they are. These are also more than likely the descendants of the original Rats of Nihm who, as we all may remember, we well adept at understanding electrity and were socially organised. Should we therefore conclude that these Taco Bell rats are part of a small yet media savvy Spartan rat army?

Yes. Right now. Fear them.