Word: rats
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Wherever and whenever man moves, he takes with him an enemy-the rat. Sly, hardy and resilient, it rode with Marco Polo and voyaged with Magellan, Cabot and countless captains of tramp steamers. And like any ocean-bored traveler, the first thing a rat did was to get off the moment the ship docked...
...fight the rodents, the ancients used cats. Modern societies have tried potent poisons like strychnine and zinc phosphide. Trouble is, they not only kill rats but friendly animals and unwary human beings as well. In 1947, a better weapon appeared: an anticoagulant called warfarin. In small doses, it does not harm large animals. But when a rat swallowed it, it caused internal bleeding and death, usually within five days. For about 25 years, man felt he had the rat on the run. No more. British health authorities have discovered that brown "house" rats (Rattus norvegicus) in Wales and black "ship...
What can be done to control super-rats? Cats unfortunately seem to have gone soft. To return to their murderous ways, they must be weaned from canned foods and retrained in what WHO calls "a suitable rat-killing environment" -one where other rat-hunting cats are at work. Snakes, mongooses and ferrets might help, if anyone wants such creatures around homes, docks and warehouses...
...best of the three is "Wharf Rat," which almost unquestionably reflects the musical state of mind that brought forth American-Beauty. A reflection on a chance encounter during a walk through a city's docks. "Wharf Rat" is the Dead at their mellowest...
...angry at Al's philandering, however, she is pleased. Nudged by a society not yet ready for Women's Lib, she had been wondering whether he was really masculine enough and fretting about the unfairness of keeping him "enslaved" at home. Being able to call him a rat is pure therapy. Still, she cannot quite shake the notion that it is unnatural for a healthy man to keep house...