Jack Black, Rat Catcher to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria Successful people are often the ones who find ways to capitalize on the problems of the day.  Another good way is to present yourself as some kind of an authority on a problem, even if you have to make up your credentials yourself.  Jack Black is a man who did both. About a century and a half before “School of Rock” was released in theaters, another man named Jack Black, this one from Battersea, England, decided to make himself useful.  England had a rat problem.  The plague-bearing black rat was being driven out of England, but the unwelcome news was that the large, gray Norway rat was what was driving it out, overrunning the cities, and the nation despaired for a solution.  Black stepped forth, presenting himself as the Queen’s official rat-catcher.  This was not an official title, since Queen Victoria never asked him to take on the job, but it certainly lent an air of authority to his work. ...