Oh, Rats

As some of you know, The Short Bus calls me Rats. I do not know why, other than Rats backwards is Star. Maybe he thinks in the Manny World I'm a star? - XMASTIME

As my name is Rats I feel a connection to the species, and it turns out there may be whooping it up more than ever in the Big Apple thanks to the pandemic:

While there’s no denying that the explosion in outdoor dining has had some impact on where rats live and when they come out to eat, it’s misguided to put the blame for dirty cities or bustling rat populations on restaurant owners alone. The rats in Artnzen’s neighborhood weren’t necessarily a sign of carelessness on the part of restaurants. Instead, data suggests that as restaurants first closed and many people hunkered down at home to weather the pandemic, rats increased their hunting radius, going further to look for food. Hungry and willing to travel during the daytime for their next meal, they became regulars on many of our blocks for the first time.

“I think there was a lot of panic in rodents [when restaurants shut down at the beginning of the pandemic],” says Campbell. ”They were not finding food sources, they were becoming much more brazen in the beginning, coming out [in the] daytime."

Viva les Rats!