{"id":6277,"date":"2010-11-21T09:06:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T14:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=6277"},"modified":"2010-11-21T09:20:48","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T14:20:48","slug":"i_would_ask_if_this_is_an_example_of_irony_but_i_cant_see_around_the_giant_inflatable_rat_in_my_face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/11\/i_would_ask_if_this_is_an_example_of_irony_but_i_cant_see_around_the_giant_inflatable_rat_in_my_face.html","title":{"rendered":"I Would Ask If This Is An Example Of Irony But I Can&#8217;t See Around The Giant Inflatable Rat In My Face"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First off, Happy Birthday, Giant Inflatable Union Rat &#8212; it turned 20 this year. The Daily News marks the occasion and notes that even though the thing has been used to great effect by the city&#8217;s unions to inform the public about non-union work sites (or whatever they&#8217;re using them for), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/ny_local\/2010\/11\/21\/2010-11-21_inflatable_rats_symbols_of_nonunion_companies_and_ubiquitous_at_protests_turn_20.html\">there is actually no giant inflatable rat-maker union<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The vinyl vermin quietly marked their 20th birthday this year. The folks at Illinois-based Big Sky Balloons and Searchlights, creators of the inflatables, made their first rat for a Chicago bricklayers union in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>Business was soon blowing up &#8212; the rats became an instant, unlikely symbol of corporate greed and anti-union work sites.<\/p>\n<p>The company &#8212; a nonunion shop, by the way &#8212; says the majority of its business is done on the East Coast. The rats range in height from a relatively small 6-footer to the super-sized 25-footer.<\/p>\n<p>The costs can run upward of $8,000.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/bigmap\/citywide\/unionrat\/index.htm\">Union Rat<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First off, Happy Birthday, Giant Inflatable Union Rat &#8212; it turned 20 this year. The Daily News marks the occasion and notes that even though the thing has been used to great effect by the city&#8217;s unions to inform the public about non-union work sites (or whatever they&#8217;re using them for), there is actually no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-tragicomic_ironic_obnoxious_or_absurd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6277"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6281,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6277\/revisions\/6281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}