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Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Snow Day Fun Turns Sour as Rat Comes Out of Nowhere

Sledding is supposed to be a wholesome, rodent-free activity.

Dan Gartland

@dna.hky/Instagram

A lovely day on the slopes... except for the rat

Even as someone who sees more than one rat per day (depending on which subway line I take to work), this video makes my skin crawl. Sledding is supposed to be a wholesome, rodent-free activity. Not the case in Victoria, British Columbia, it seems. 

A rare snowstorm paralyzed the city with more than a foot of snow, but residents made the most of the snow-covered streets by skiing and snowboarding out in the road. One hilly street became a popular spot for sledders—so popular, in fact, that a rat wanted to join in on the action. 

#https://www.instagram.com/p/BtzyJXCAZhy/

“At first I thought it was a piece of toboggan that broke off. But then it was in my lap,” Cole Salsman, the guy who captured the video on his GoPro, told Coast Mountain News. “It flew back onto the hill and ran around the other toboggan and back into my path. I almost hit it a second time. It was a very quick rat.”

(This is also a good place to mention one of my favorite fun facts: There are no rats in the entire Canadian province of Alberta. The provincial government enacted strict rat control procedures when the rodents were first discovered in the province in 1950. Though rats are occasionally discovered after stowing away on trucks from other places, the province has no breeding populations of rats.) 

DeAndre Jordan’s face is the best part

Knicks rookie Kevin Knox baptized Ben Simmons with a truly vicious two-handed slam, but the dunk was only as good as DeAndre Jordan’s incredulous reaction. 

Jordan has a penchant for showing his feelings on his face after a big slam, you may remember. 

That older screencap, of course, comes from this righteous dunk Jordan himself laid down on poor Brandon Knight in 2013. It’s a true classic. 

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A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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