the underdog is a mouse

T did the peanut butter shopping, smooth for Lily and crunchy pour moi. The labeling placed the product somewhere between Jiffy or Skippy and Eddie’s (my preference) in the non-upscale everyday range. My reaction was: well I suppose those Aussies are doing their best, or maybe it is a NZ produced brand under license from somewhere else, UK related. Imagine my shock when I saw ‘Made in China'! What will they manufacture next--Bordeaux or Champagne ? (...well MG's in Kansas are pretty unbelievable...) Indonesia does make great peanut sauces (and Thailand?) but peanut butter from China rubs me the wrong way. (Who but those of my vintage can remember when ‘Made in Japan’ was pejorative?)

The topic is vermin. When we shopped for rodent traps, there was a life-size rubber mouse hanging limply from “The BETTER Mousetrap” by Intruder Inc. TM. Tessa said, “Oh it was bigger than that!” so we opted for the larger rat (?) model. The peanut butter was a big success. (The traps are made in RICE Lake, Wisconsin so maybe it all makes sense.) The mouse cleaned every last morsel from the trap—which remained ‘unsprung’ as it were. Back to the Yellow Warehouse, a Wal-Marty affair staffed by people who actually know where things are and are happy to assist you in finding them (‘may I help’ is the mantra). The mouse was also happy with peanut butter in the mousetrap, unfazed by the mouse friendly (?) scale! (The hair-trigger response to the human touch puts one in fear of losing a finger.) The third night we tried a caramel-like toffee coated with peanut butter. Bingo, another successful repast judging by the clean trap/platter. This menu will be repeated tonight—he/she must make a mistake sooner or later, chewing or tearing at the candy instead of licking it for an hour… Poison, a last resort, is all that’s left to try after tonight even though this will remove the sport from the hunt…(NB ‘rat’, ‘rodent’ and ‘vermin' are all used to demonize our 'enemy' and enlist your sympathies on our side…)

[Left for you to turn over in your mind, oh gentle reader, is the unexplored cognitive dissonance engendered by contemplating the bird feeder in the backyard (the birds check everyday to see if we have visited the bird supermarket yet to replenish their needs) the house mouse and the fact that the previous owners had a cat for a pet…go figure…you could be thinking--better that the cat caught no mice and no birds than some of each, for instance]