Читать книгу Grossopedia: A Startling Collection of Repulsive Trivia You Won’t Want to Know! - Rachel Federman - Страница 34

“A Giant Mutant Rat” and “The Dead Body under the Christmas Tree”—these headlines are horrible, so why do we keep reading? Blood and gore in black and white—it’s the modern-day version of watching gladiators fight. There’s just some primal hankering in humans for blood and disgust that attracts and repels us at the same time. Kind of like a magnet if the two sides overlapped. But then it wouldn’t be a magnet. Okay, we need a better metaphor here. In the meantime, press on through the weird and terrible stranger-than-fiction truth! And be glad you’re not in print, at least for these stories.

Monster Rat

New York City subways are notoriously rat infested, but Jose Rivera was in for a surprise when he came upon a group of gigantic, mutant white rats in Brooklyn, where he was working for the housing authority. He ended up stabbing and killing one with a pitchfork. A wildlife expert believed the super-size rodent was likely a Gambian pouched rat that had once been a house pet (which, in our estimation, is even weirder than the image of one running loose outside).

Something’s Buggin’ Me

In 2004, National Geographic published a report called “For Most People, Eating Bugs Is Only Natural”. Examples throughout history and even the modern age are plentiful, from Aristotle’s advice on harvesting cicadas—full of eggs, if you’re lucky—to the coconut and ginger dragonflies favored in Bali today. (see Bizarre Cuisine for lots of great recipe ideas.)

Nailed the Landing