OFF/"rule of thumb" and other MEATY topix

[Robert C. Mayo]

my better half is a vegan for digestive disorder-related reasons; but she is
extremely anti-animal experimentation. for this reason she once made a
donation to PETA and was susequently placed on a number of related mailing
lists. we also get PETA's newsletter regularly. flipping thru it one day,
marveling at some of the photos included (very effective shock-value pics),
i saw an article entitiled "humane ways to deal with household pests". long
story short: peaceful co-existence is urged. learn to live with them if
they're already in your home; if not, help them 'avoid' your home. lots of
helpful tips are included on living in harmony with mice/rats,
squirrels/raccoons, and ants/cockroaches.

i'm not making this up.

a few months previous, in mid-summer, we had an exterminator come in to rid
us of big, black carpenter ants that we were later told had nested in a
bathroom wall and were eating our house. they were always about in the
kitchen and bath and getting into the food, crawling on us if we weren't
careful. it cost us 250$ and we had to vacate the house for 24 hrs.  i showed
the article to my wife and said 'i think animal experimentation is wrong and
all that, but don't you think this is going a bit far?'

a tense moment passed. finally she said 'yes. that's ridiculous.'
*PHEW*!!!!

rmayo