#WWRD (what would Remy do)

Loyal readers of W+W (thanks to both of you, mom and stepdad Kevin) will remember that we (sorta) broke the hilarious story of New York City recruiting a “Rat Czar” to oversee the city’s fight against the dreaded Rattus norvegicus. Now we have BREAKING NEWS on the rodent front. NYC just celebrated (okay, maybe celebrated isn’t the right word) its first-ever Anti-Ray Day of Action! It only took the Rat Czar four months to set this up, but who’s counting? The larger point: this was fire from a PR perspective. Every outlet from CBS News to Inside Edition covered this non-story. The lesson here is that if you grab onto an issue everyone loves or hates (in this case) and give it a clever twist, you’re sure to stand out from the crowd. That’s where the art and science of humor comes in. Which leads us to…

Bananarama’s song had it all wrong

Sticking with the vermin vibe, we have more BREAKING NEWS. Apparently, we’re all enjoying a “rat girl summer” here in 2023. We’re always the last to know this stuff, but this is def a thing. The TikTok trend attributed to Lola Kolade encourages people to get outside (because you “cannot scurry in bed”), don’t overthink anything and “nibble” on any food you’d like. Just like Anti-Rat Day, the rat girl summer rage is spreading like…well…rats, from social media to the likes of the Washington Post. (Leaving Boomers to complain about whatever happened to real journalism from guys like Woodward & Bernstein.) Now if only we could get the Rat Czar together with Lola for a rat-off, that would be lit.

This just in from Camp Run-A-Muk

Switching gears, who knew the Wall Street Journal could be so LOL? On top of reporting on the yield curve and tariffs (fun!), the WSJ peeps hit on an IJBOL trend among bougie parents. Their summer camps are posting pics of their kids to try to ease their freak-outs about little Stryder being away from home for the first time. Instead, the pics are causing all kinds of angst because they think their darlings aren’t having enough fun. God forbid! At least they’re not surrounded by rats. Props to the WSJ for having their finger on the pulse and finding helicopter parents to talk about this. It’s a reminder to all of us to get our heads out of playing Quordle and look around for the funny and bizarre.