Tornado Alley (PROG)

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The four legged ones have taken some casualties outside the WH.

The White House Has Rat Traps Set Up & Twitter Can't Contain Itself

By Caroline Burke

Apr 11 2019


https://www.bustle.com/p/the-white-house-has-rat-traps-set-up-twitter-cant-contain-itself-17032427

you're looking for a slam dunk of a joke opportunity, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has you covered. The White House apparently has rat traps set up, according to a photo tweeted by Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs. And although rats are an incredibly common rodent issue in D.C., it seems like a large number of Twitter users couldn't resist such a beautifully delivered metaphor.

According to The Week, the problem of rats has been ongoing in D.C. for a while now, and is only getting worse; the city allocated an extra $906,000 toward addressing the infestation this January. Well, that extra money hasn't been enough to keep the White House from having to put out the type of rat traps you usually see in the alleyways near restaurants in cities.

In response to Jacobs' tweet (which you can see below), a number of people couldn't help but take the literal and turn it into the figurative. Journalist Molly Jong-Fast replied, "They can just tell Eric not to visit," while scientist Grady Booch wrote, "Do they come in larger sizes?"

Another Twitter user replied, "Do they have one that can hold 6'3" 239lb. rat? Actually, it needs to be shorter and wider, the rat lies about its weight."

According to The Huffington Post, the book Real Life at the White House: Two Hundred Years of Daily Life at America’s Most Famous Residence, written by Claire and John Whitcomb, reveals how big of a problem infestations were throughout a number of administrations. This includes that of President Grover Cleveland's presidency in the late 19th century. Via the online publication, an excerpt from the book reads:

When the outside of the house was hosed down during a cleaning, a shower of spiders blanketed the ground. That evening, the white columns were black with them as they crawled back from whence they came. And then there were the cockroaches. One staff member said, "I didn’t know there were so many species of cockroaches as I got acquainted with my daily work."

So no, the rat traps at the White House are not exactly "news" in the traditional sense. But hey, there's no reason to ruin everyone's fun by reminding them how common rat infestations are in the White House.