The World's Largest Rat

UPDATE (Sunday 10/21): The rat never returned. I'd like to think it was because of me, but who knows, maybe they just had a one-day rat rental? I ran into some of my neighbors this afternoon and we were talking about the rat and I told them that it may very well have left because of me. Or at least that is what I am telling myself. A girl can dream.

The World's Largest Rat booth at Coney Island

Rewind to the summer of 1996. I am living in Manhattan and take a trip with my friends to Coney Island. There, I encounter something I will never forget -- a booth bragging, from a loudspeaker, that you can go inside and see the "World's Largest Rat." That is right, you can pay to see an enormous rat, supposedly even biggest than a cat. Um, no thanks, I skip the show and opt instead for a ride on a wooden roller coaster that I find out later had had an accident the previous day. But at least I am spared from seeing the world's largest rat.

Fast forward 11+ years (has it really been that long?). I leave my home this morning and directly across the street it is there. The world's largest rat. Seriously, a 20-foot rat with huge claws and fangs and what looks like a gaping wound in its abdomen. Before you get too grossed out, I should mention that this rat was made out of inflated plastic and was there to make the point of some union picketers (they are renovating the supermarket across the street and using nonunion employees). I guess a "rat" has some sort of anti-labor connotation. Ok, I get the point and I support their right to free speech and also their message. But putting a giant, bleeding rat effigay literally outside my front door is a bit much. The protestors are supposedly for "community standards" -- and I know by that, they mean that workers should get paid and treated equally, etc. But please tell me how this giant rat is helping improve the community?

I dropped Lucy at daycare and on my way home, I decided to have a friendly chat with the picketers. I told them that my daughter was terrified of the giant rat. Ok, so she wasn't...but really, this girl is afraid of chickens, so who knows what will happen when she gets a good look at the rat? One of them thought it was funny, telling me to tell her it was Mickey Mouse. I told him that while I understand his humor, she does not. I reminded him that she is a baby and thus quite irrational and also not developed enough to understand union politics. One of the men was quite nice and talked to me. We talked about the project and the workers and I told him I support his cause but I wish he could do it without the rat. He said he would talk to the protest supervisor. Ok, I felt proud that I had spoken up without losing my cool.

Around noon today, I came home from being out and both the picketers and the rat were gone. There were two police officers standing there, and they noticed that I noticed the missing rat. "No more rat," they said. Wow, I thought, they took the rat away because of me and the officers remember me and want to thank me! Um, no. "Is it gone for good?" I ask. No, they tell me, it will be back tomorrow. So I tell them that I had talked to the union guys and told them that the rat scared my daughter and that it does not belong across the street from a residence. Do THEY care? No! One of them says "doesn't she watch cartoons?" -- and I was like, "Curious George does not have giant bleeding rats in it." I told them that it was inappropriate for a residential area, to which they informed me that I live in the city, not Lexington. And they suggested I simply keep my blinds down. To which I told them that I honestly thought they would be more supportive, and that my condo cost the same as a lot of houses in Lexington (ok, that last comment was a bit bratty, but they really made me mad). And really, this is Brookline, not downtown Boston. Anyway, reason number 8 million that I am glad we are moving...

And now, for a photo of the rat I saw today. This is not the actual rat (they took it down before I could take a picture), but this is exactly what it looked like. Would you want this across the street from your house??

p.s I looked up more about these rats. According to one article, the original rat was "not mean enough," so the designer "added bigger fangs and a pink belly with 'festering nipples.'" The company that makes them sells between 100 and 200 of them a year...and is nonunion. (Click here to read more).