Lena

The middle position that works, and what makes the rat argument real or not:

Leave sound fruit, but not in a heap, and not against the trunk. Scattered fruit that is accessible to birds and dries or breaks down quickly is not a rat problem. A pile is — it is food plus cover, which is the combination that matters. Rats want somewhere to be while they eat.

Keep the base of the trunk clear regardless. Fruit against bark holds moisture on it all winter and that is its own problem, separate from disease and rodents.

Take the worst of it away in autumn, then stop worrying. You do not need to clear every apple. You need to remove the diseased ones and avoid creating a heap.

If you have more sound fruit than the ground can absorb, the other honest option is to pick it before it falls and give it away. A tree that drops that much is usually producing more than the ground under it can process.

The stationary-and-predictable point reframes it — I had been thinking about what is attractive about the room rather than what is unusual about me while I am in it.

Worth warning about the other direction, since you are translating for family: "gravy" alone is the bigger trap and it will catch you again.

In Italian-American cooking it can mean a long-cooked tomato sauce. In parts of the American south it is the white peppery one above. Brown roast gravy exists too. So the word has at least three referents and none of them are marked.

If you ever get a recipe that just says gravy, the fat it starts from tells you which one it is — meat drippings, sausage fat, or tomato and olive oil.