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What are rats?

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This is a chapter from my fourth book called When hunger yearns

These rodents first got to America by stowing away on ships. That was the first answer on Jeopardy when Alex Trebek started hosting the show back in 1964. The category was "Animals" and the contestant Greg Hopkins correctly responded with "What are rats?" I am not good at Jeopardy. I don't have a bunch of facts loaded in my memory. In jeopardy answers are given and you have to respond with the correct question. Some other interesting answers and questions from that first show are: This fastener gets its name from a brand of galoshes it was used on? What is Zipper; Though its name means "city of peace", it's seen over 30 wars, the last in 1967. What is Jerusalem?

Rats have a bad reputation but I observed that rats spelt in reverse is stars so maybe we just need to take a different look at them. Weirdly enough I learnt that Rats & Star was a Japanese male pop group that specialized in doo-wop-influenced music. According to wikipedia the band's palindromic name tells the story of how "rats" raised in the less affluent parts of town could, by singing doo-wop music, reverse their fortunes and collectively become a "star".  Who does not love an underdog story or should I say underrat story. The rise of the underrated. The sky is the limit and full of stars.

Today I learnt some cool facts about rats. Rats laugh when they're tickled. Rats are good swimmers. Rats often spend hours grooming themselves or each other. Rats grind their teeth, also known as chattering, to keep them from growing too long. A group of rats is called a mischief. Rats can count. I was thinking that a ratter is a rat who is a rapper but turns out a ratter is any dog specialized in catching and getting rid of rats. Who knew? I thought that was a cat's job. Speaking of rats on ships which began this whole chapter. Did Noah bring rats on the ark? I asked Google and saw an even more interesting question, did Noah put fishes on the ark? We may never no. Ah!

Have you ever wondered why life is described as a rat race sometimes? According to my friend Gemini, this likens the pursuit of success to rats running in a maze, endlessly seeking rewards. The funny thing about this is that humans are the ones who put the rats in that dilema. And we also tend to put ourselves in the same situation. Modern life does not have to be this competitive in the excessive pursuit of external successes like status and money. Do we really need to subject these rats to these mazes? Are there alternatives to these experiments? Do we need to chase after life in the way we do sometimes and become exhausted and burnt out? What are rats? We are not rats and life is not a rat race. Life can be amazing without the maze of the illusions of what happiness is. Life is not a race to the finish but a journey to be experienced.
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