Sara wrote:
>This was in my newspaper (The Portland Oregonian) this morning.
>Apparently the White House was infested with rats until Benjamin
>Harrison brought in an army of ferrets, which were allowed to roam
>throughout the building in search of their prey.
 
Sara, it would be good to see that article on ferret in the White House
because knowing the source (and even getting permission to share the
article) may be useful when people are combating proposed anti-ferret
legislation.  Searching on ferret, ferrets, Harrison, and Benjamin
Harrison at the Oregonian in today's articles came up empty, though.
Could you give more details -- best would be the URL but if you don't
have that then: author, if the article arose at the Oregonian (in which
case, please, give reporter's name), if the article arose elsewhere (if
so, please, say where and if a reporter's name is given, please, share
that), names and details (location, position, etc.) about the person
interviewed who let the reporters know about this, etc.
 
I'll post this, too, because if it was from a news service it might
appear in other papers and someone might be able to find a URL at one
of those.
 
It tends to really help when areas have ignorant people introduce
anti-ferret legislation to be able to show not only safety information
but also some things from ferrets' history which stick in people's minds.
Some of these should take the shape of using generally known names
(Pliny, Elizabeth I with a copy of the painting the Salisbury family
has provided to one fo the British museums), "Lady with Ermine" (Milan,
Cecilia Gallerani (favorite mistress of Ludovico Sfora), which is also a
pun on the Greek word "galee" (Insert an accent mark over the first e.)
for ermine and which was not only the symbol of purity and modesty but
also an allusion to Ludovico Sfora who used it as one of his emblems).
You can see where being able to show a White House history could be
useful.
[Posted in FML issue 4427]