Month: February 2017

Victorian England was infested with rats. Rodents were in your basement, your sewers, your garden, your pantry, your parks, your pipes—and it was a huge problem. An untold number of rats crippled crops, spoiled food supplies, clogged drains, and, of course, had helped spread a plague that killed about 60 percent of Europe’s population. (Though gerbils may deserve some blame, too.)

Residents resorted to a handful of techniques to stop the critters. Farmers were known to catch rats and strap bells around their necks, or singe their fur, hoping a horde of jangly burnt rodents would scare fellow pests away. It didn’t. “Rats are everywhere about London,” said a man named Jack Black, “both in rich and poor places.”

Black would know. He was England’s royal rat-catcher.

 
“Rat-catcher” may not be a job you see at Career Day anymore, but in Victorian England, it was a popular and sometimes lucrative career. According to author Barbara Tufty [PDF], a decent rat-catcher could earn “special privileges” if he caught at least 5000 rats a year, or about 13 rats a day. The job was so common that rodent-chasers in England established their own professional rat-catcher guilds. The occupation even inspired a popular folktale: The Pied Piper was a rat-catcher.

During the Victorian era, Jack Black was the king of the rat-catchers. The official “rat and mole destroyer to her Majesty,” Black got his start doing government work as a young man after he noticed London’s royal parks were spilling over with rats. (Literally: They had gnawed through the bridge drains.) His talent for catching rodents proved unmatchable, and he was eventually appointed by Queen Victoria to the post of supreme rat-catcher.

Black strolled around London with the swagger and audacity of royalty while maintaining the appearance of a court jester. He wore a homemade uniform of white leather pants, a scarlet waistcoat, a green topcoat, a gold band around his hat, and a sash emblazoned with metal rat-shaped medallions, which he had made by secretly melting down his wife’s saucepans.

Ever the showman, Black ambled around the city with a cart full of rats and peddled a homemade brew of varmint poison. After finding a crowd, he would set up a small stage, open a giant cage of rats, and reach inside. The rodents would jump onto his arms, scurry over his shoulders, and scamper from one hand to the next. The crowds oohed and ahhed—Black was rarely bitten. (Whenever a rat did sink its teeth in, Black treated his wound by visiting the local pub and having some “medicine,” a.k.a. stout—although if the bite was really bad, he would make sure to clean the wound.)

After luring a crowd, Black would begin hawking his poison to onlookers. “I challenge my composition, and sell the art of rat-destroying, against any chemical ray-destroyer in the world, for any sum,” he’d bark. “I don’t care what it is. Let anybody, either a medical or druggist manufacturer of composition, come and test with rats again me.”

After a pleasant afternoon selling rodenticide, Black would descend into London’s basements and sewers with a legion of ferrets and dogs to catch more rats. Black had trained the ferrets to sniff out vermin, while he trained the dogs to track down the ferrets in case they got lost or stuck in a sewer pipe, according to Lapham’s Quarterly.

Black tried using other animals to catch vermin. He trained a badger, two raccoons, and a monkey, but most of them couldn’t compete with dogs and ferrets. “I’ve learnt a monkey to kill rats,” he said, “but he wouldn’t do much, and only give them a good shaking when they bit him.”

Black didn’t kill every rat he caught, though. He often kept them alive and bred them for sport.

Nineteenth-century Europeans have an unfortunate history of enjoying animal bloodsports: Monkey-baiting (Can a monkey armed with a stick fight a dog?); fox-tossing (Who can throw a fox highest in the air?); and goose-pulling (Can you decapitate a goose while riding a horse?) were just a few. During Black’s time, rat-baiting, in which dozens of rats are tossed in a pit with a dog, was one of the most popular pastimes in London taverns. The bloodsport was so beloved that the government taxed the rat-killing dogs. London’s premiere rat pit owner, Jimmy Shaw, bought 26,000 live rats each year from rat-catchers like Black.

But Black also bred rats for gentler reasons. He knew that some people wanted rodents as pets—and that some folks would pay handsomely for an equally handsome rat—so he began breeding “fancy” rats. Whenever he discovered a rat-of-a-different-color, he’d take it home for “ladies to keep in squirrel cages.”

Black was proud of his fancy rat-breeding skills. It’s rumored that he bred rats for the Queen and the author Beatrix Potter. He claimed that “I’ve bred the finest collection of pied rats which has ever been knowed [sic] in the world.” Which is probably true. The American Fancy Rat & Mouse Association says Black “can be credited as the originator of the first true domestic rats.”

But Jack Black’s legacy may dig even deeper: The first white lab rat—bred in Philadelphia—was descended from an albino rat that may have been bred by the rat catcher.

There’s no way to be certain, but as Robert Sullivan writes in his book Rats: Observations on the History & habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants, “I like to think that all the great scientific achievements that have been made in the modern scientific era as a result of work with laboratory rats are ultimately the result of the work of Jack Black, rat catcher.”

You can read more about Jack Black in Robert Mayhew’s 1851 classic oral history of everyday Londoners, London Labour and the London Poor—the fun starts on page 11 [PDF].

Last month, France enacted a new labor law that gives anyone who works at a company with 50 or more employees the “right to disconnect” from their email. That means that employers actually have to actively enact policies discouraging people from sending or responding to messages outside of typical business hours.

While that ruling may sound like a utopian pipe dream to the many Americans for whom work communication infiltrates early mornings, late nights, and even weekends, it wasn’t such a big leap for the French, who have long valued work-life balance.

Generally, email culture varies widely around the world, from the response times you can expect to the phrasing and tone used. So, if you plan to communicate with colleagues, new clients, or sources from other countries, we’ve rounded up some examples of email etiquette and other quirks to remember to help ensure smooth communication.

1. IN INDIA OR OTHER “HIGH-CONTEXT” CULTURES LIKE JAPAN OR CHINA, PEOPLE ARE LESS LIKELY TO SAY “NO.”

You won’t find many direct declines peppering emails from Indians. People will throw out a “maybe” or “yes, but” to imply “no” without actually saying it. This allows both parties to “save face,” an important cultural concept where both parties avoid an embarrassment that could come from a refusal. For example, if you ask an India-based colleague to Skype at what would be 7 p.m. their time, they may reply with “yes” but then mention that they will push back their dinner plans as a way to signal that the time isn’t actually convenient—that’s your cue to suggest an earlier time.

2. IF AN INDIAN WRITER HAS SOME “DOUBTS,” FEAR NOT.

When you send over a suggestion or a business plan and an Indian colleague responds that they have some “doubts” on the issue, they could very well just mean that they have questions. There are Hindi and Tamil words that effectively mean both, so someone may inadvertently write the former, which comes across as much more negative, when they really mean the latter.

3. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU ADDRESS SOMEONE WHO EMAILS FROM CHINA.

In China, people state their names with their surname first, followed by their given name. It would be rude to call someone only by his or her last name, so a Westerner would have to make sure to switch the order before adding a title (Mr., Ms, etc). However, Chinese people will sometimes preemptively use the Western format when emailing Western companies, which would lead to confusion if the recipient tries to swap the names. When in doubt about someone’s name, ask.

4. AND IN CHINA, EVEN BUSINESS EMAILS MAY BE “CUTE.”

While many Americans see emoticons as unprofessional, the Chinese generally don’t. Porter Erisman, who worked at the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba for many years and wrote the book Alibaba’s World about his experience, says that even senior managers would include “all sorts of cute smiley faces and animations” in their emails. “At first it seemed a little strange to me, but by the time I left the company, even I was peppering my internal emails with little emoticons everywhere,” he tells mental_floss. “It got to the point that when new Western colleagues would enter the company, I would encourage them to ‘cutify’ their emails a little bit to come across more human and friendly.”

5. KOREANS TYPICALLY BEGIN AN EMAIL WITH A GENERAL OBSERVATION AS A FORM OF POLITENESS.

An email from a Korean associate might begin with what seems like a completely unrelated message. For example, a Korean-style email might go something like, “Dear Ms. Smith. This is Joe Schmo. The rainy season in Korea is now upon us. I hope you have a good umbrella. I’m contacting you because … ” as one Reddit user explains it.

6. KOREANS WILL ALSO SOMETIMES END AN EMAIL WITH “THE END.”

It is routine for a Korean to conclude an email with the equivalent of “the end” without it meaning that communication should stop, according to Steven Bammel, a consultant on Korean business practices. Koreans may also close an email with “work hard” or “suffer a lot,” which are as much a standard, conversational closer as “take it easy” might be for an American (but it shows the Korean emphasis on the importance of hard work and competitiveness).

7. GERMANS KEEP IT FORMAL.

In Germany, it’s customary to begin emails with a greeting that is equivalent to “Dear Sir / Madam” even within the same office. Other little quirks: Germans start the sentence after their greeting with a lowercase letter and frequently don’t use a comma between their sign-offs and signature.

8. YOU SHOULD NEVER ADDRESS A RUSSIAN BY JUST THEIR FIRST NAME UNLESS EXPLICITLY INVITED TO DO SO.

The formality is seen as a necessary sign of respect. You should also expect any business negotiation to move very slowly, particularly because many Russians see compromise as a sign of weakness.

9. THE JAPANESE SKEW APOLOGETIC WHEN MAKING REQUESTS.

If you’re asking a Japanese collaborator a question or for a favor, you should make sure to thoroughly acknowledge the effort it will require for them to help you and apologize accordingly. For example, use phrases like, “Sorry to interrupt you while you are busy” or “I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but thank you …”

10. MOST OTHER COUNTRIES WRITE THE DATE IN A WAY THAT WOULD CONFUSE AMERICANS.

In most European and South American countries, as well as Australia and various African and Asian countries, people will use a “day/month/year” format instead of the “month/day/year” format that Americans are used to. While the difference can be easy to spot if someone requests a deadline of “14/4/17,” an email referencing “9/4/17” could have you thinking that you have to wait several months for something to be decided or delivered. When in doubt, always clarify!

11. ITALIANS MAY CALL YOU “DOTTORE,” REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE A MEDICAL DEGREE.

The word “dottore” or “medico” can be used to refer to a doctor in Italian, but the former takes on a different meaning when used in correspondence. Italians will use “Dottore” or “Dottoressa” as a respectful way to address people. “To deserve the title of ‘Dottore,’ you need only to have a university education—nothing to do with a degree in medicine!” Italian businesswoman Daniela Roggero, who works in global training and HR development, explains to mental_floss.

She also advises that you should be open to including details about your life in an email with Italian colleagues.

“We like to share personal situations, feelings, references to our family and so on even in work communication,” Roggero says. “Also we love to start (mostly informal) emails with something funny, like ‘You thought I had disappeared but here I am again!’ or things like that.”

12. PAY ATTENTION TO WHETHER YOU’RE USING ACTIVE OR PASSIVE VOICE WHEN EMAILING ASSOCIATES IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Filipinos will often show respect to someone of an equal or superior business rank by speaking or writing in the passive voice, as in “The rest of the information will be sent tomorrow” versus “I will send you the rest of the information tomorrow.” Generally, people only use the active voice when communicating with those of lower rank. You can score points by adhering to the appropriate structure.

13. DO YOUR RESEARCH TO KNOW WHEN TO EXPECT A RESPONSE.

While Americans generally expect a fast turn-around time when communicating through email, other cultures have a much longer acceptable window for responses. Get used to several days or a week between messages when you’re operating on Brazilian time, for example.

Similarly, people in most countries don’t utilize “out of office” automated responses as much as Americans do, since immediate responses aren’t expected. If you’re doing a lot of international communicating and set a vacation transponder for the Monday and Friday that you’re taking off for a long weekend, you will likely come across as a workaholic.

All images via iStock.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most notable presidential addresses in history, but that doesn’t mean other U.S. presidents haven’t had their fair share of memorable speeches. The podcast platform Acast gathered up one such speech from each president since John F. Kennedy, collecting audio from some of the most important addresses of the last 50 years.

Most are inaugural addresses, but a few notable speeches midway through presidents’ tenures made the cut, like the voting rights speech Lyndon B. Johnson delivered to Congress in 1965 and Jimmy Carter’s 1979 “Crisis of Confidence” speech.

In honor of President’s Day, take a listen to some of the things our past leaders have had to say to the country. All 10 can be found here. And if that’s too modern, there are some audio files available of presidential speeches from the early 20th century here.

In Loco Presidentis: Who’s In Charge Here? The long road to covering presidential succession scenarios.
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When Lincoln Was More a Politician Than an “Honest Abe.” He became a newspaper troll for a short time.
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Stop blaming brown recluse spiders for your horrifying flesh wounds. Their bites gets diagnosed even in places where they don’t live.
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The Difficult Journey of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The production staff learned from the mistakes of the first movie, and even used them to their advantage.
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First-ever self-driving car race on a track ends with a bang. There was no second-place finish.
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What Happens When Teens Run the Court. Some real offenders get to take a chance with their peers instead of facing juvenile court.
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Should people with eating disorders be force-fed? It might save their lives, but it won’t help the underlying illness.
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10 Presidential Fashion Flubs. Eisenhower’s was the best.

When it comes to being the first, Omero Catan is No. 1.