You know the silly season is here
when the death of a racoon on a city street makes the obituary columns. I would
probably not have taken much notice of the reports myself except that the creature
apparently died just round the corner from where we live.
In the
nature of things, racoons everywhere die all the time, whether they enjoy an urban
life or reside in their country habitat. Also, few would normally shed a tear
when a racoon passes on, least of all for city-dwelling racoons. These are
animals that do not normally endear themselves to city humans, principally
because of their habit of upsetting our garbage bins during the night and
leaving the mess for us to clear up.
But July is
the month when public sources of entertainment dry up. Politics, especially, is
at an ebb, with Parliament in recess and politicians find themselves at a loose
end, with fewer opportunities to keep their mouths shut except at the
traditional constituency barbecue. True, there could be music entertainments of
all kinds, jazz, pop, classical, etc. Besides, every weekend sees some street
party or the other in celebration of the city’s cultural diversity. And of course, there are the staple shootings,
stabbings, road rage and other fracas that keep the police busy. All
predictable, but apparently not quite enough to satisfy our desire for something
out of the ordinary. Even something as big as the Pan-American Games coming to
town was, initially, not enough to get residents animated, leading to no less
than the New York Times harrumphing
that, “most Torontonians seem to be greeting the event with a shrug” (NYTPanAMGames) And, not until the
country’s athletes started winning shedloads of medals did the city wake up to
the possibility that something special might be going on on their doorstep.
But it
seems that when it comes to dead racoons, we get pumped up enough to send messages
around the world through the internet. How else can one explain the sensational
spread of an inconsequential story of a racoon dying at a street corner in
mid-town? (DeadRacoon) Of course the term “viral” has acquired a whole new meaning in the
last few years, perhaps without a full appreciation of the word’s provenance or
of how the original can be a potential killer not to be trifled with.
Tell Fren
Tru
