Interestingly middle-named New York Times reporter and Chinese-food scholar Jennifer 8. Lee takes on Metro’s billboards promising rat-free transit in a post on the Times‘ City Room blog. “Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless), you don’t see rats the size of house cats roaming the Metro,” the ad reads.

Lee figures this is meant as an attack on New York’s transit system, and she’s probably right, though a Metro spokesperson denies it. Fine, whatever—inventing petty squabbles are what blog posts are for. To that end, can’t a Times star come up with better trash-talk than this?

“Washington’s system may be rat-free, but its subway map also has all the sophistication of Fisher Price.”