A rat is giving a boy a bad name

Regarding “The Recipe for ‘Ratatouille,’ ” (June 28):

I have a rat -- oops, I mean bone -- to pick with writer-director Brad Bird. My dear son Remy, 11, is about to endure his own personal summer of hell. I wasn’t sure what the fallout from “Ratatouille” would be until we had a taste of it on a ferry ride around the San Francisco Bay. When I yelled out his name, a gaggle of kids sitting nearby excitedly started chanting, “Remy the rat, Remy the rat, Remy the rat.” We were speechless.

My son looked at me across the ferry seats, horrified, and said, “Why Remy?” When I tried assuring him this would pass before school started back up in the fall, he rolled his eyes and turned on his iPod to drown out the chanting.

I think the kid qualifies for a free pass, or at least a poster.

KARIN MADARIETA

La Canada Flintridge