Never thought much about rats, until I saw Willard, the 70s horror flick.
[READER]( The Daily Reader On the phone with my oldest daughter, chatting about this and that, when I heard a shriek. âAhh!â Followed by . . . âGross!â Then . . . âGet rid of itâplease!â It was my daughter, the one I was on the phone with. âWhatâs going on?â I exclaimed. âItâs a rat!â âA rat?â âYes, a rat. A freaking rat!â Eventually, she calmed down long enough to fill in the details. She was at the auto shop, talking to me, as she watched the mechanic open the hood of her car to make a repair. And when he opened the hood, what did he find? That aforementioned rat, which had apparently crawled under the hood and died. Got me thinking about my tumultuous relationship with rodents over the yearsâno, Iâm not writing about MAGA. Iâm talking about real rodents, not the human kind. Never thought much about them, until I saw Willard, the 70s horror flick. Saw it at the long-closed Valencia Theater in Evanston. Or maybe it was at the Varsity. Doesnât matter. Point isâit freaked me out big time. Willardâs this oddball loner who makes friends with a rat named Ben. He likes Ben so much, he sings it a love song. Actually, a young Michael Jackson sings that song. Wait! Upon reflection, Iâm pretty sure âBenâ was the theme song to Ben, a sequel to Willard (yes, they made a sequel). Which I saw at the Howard Theaterâalso long closedâwhere I once saw an actual rat running down the aisle. And trust me, no one was singing that rat a song. At the end of Willard, Willardâs devoured by hundreds of rats who he thought were his friends. After that I wanted nothing to do with rats. When I see them when walking around the neighborhoodâand I see them all the timeâIâm happy to let them go their way as I go mine. Which reminds me . . . Years ago, we had an infestation of mice in our house. We brought in an exterminatorâan old, wise Cuban refugee who muttered to himself in Spanish, as he walked about the house shining his flashlight into cracks and crevices, looking for tell-tale droppings. One day I was in the kitchen with my wife when out from under the stove came a mouse. It staggered around in a circle for a few seconds, then rolled over, dead. Obviously, done in by the old exterminatorâs killer pellets. âGet rid of it!â my wife said. Dutifully, I did as toldâwhat with me being the man of the house and allâsweeping the lifeless mouse onto a dustbin. A triggering experience, as I still had not recovered from the trauma of watching Willard and Ben back in the day. My daughterâs mechanic was much braver. He picked up the dead rat by its tail and threw it away. Hereâs hoping voters have the same success with MAGA during Novemberâs midterms. Oh, wait, I wasnât going to get political . . .
Listen to [The Ben Joravsky Show](
[What Ben's Reading] [Dead Lions]( by Mick Herron. The sequel to Slow Horses, part of a spy series about misfit M-15 agents. Yes, Iâm hooked on Herron. The plotâs not credible, but the dialogue is funny. [Kelly Garcia]( continues her series on Riot Fest [Ben Joravsky]( long as weâre talking about Aaron Rodgers . . . [Best of the Ben J. Show]( [Rummana Hussain]( with Americans and the Queen? [Kathleen Sances]( good fight for gun reform [April Preyar]( lies about the Safe-T Act
[Guaranteed income offers stability to formerly incarcerated people](
Many struggle to find employment because of the stigma of a criminal record. To help, one organization is offering cash.
by [Leslie Hurtado]( [Brian Young Jr.]( and [City Bureau](
[Resources available for formerly incarcerated people](
Where to find support
by [Leslie Hurtado]( and [City Bureau]( [A new home, a new energy](
Artist Carmen Neely and gallerist Mariane Ibrahim found community in Chicago.
by [Kaylen Ralph]( ð Forget the apps. [Place a FREE Reader Matches ad]( and try your luck at finding love the 90s way ð°
[Issue of
September 15 - 29, 2022
Vol. 51, No.]( [Download Issue](
[View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails?
You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2022 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is:
Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616