More Australian Thoughts
Date: 1/27/2021
Dad Joke: She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her
still. (Oh, that is bad!)
(From Kathryn) Tom
Brady is once again appearing in the Super Bowl. Bill Belichick is deflated.
Random Thoughts on a
Passing Scene:
Today, Jan and I are trying to sign-up for the first round
of the Covid vaccination shots. We have
to get an assigned time-slot – along with about “eleventy-zillion” others in
our county! As I finished writing this
post, my ace Executive Assistant (that would be JLOB) has me signed up for the
first of my shots later this afternoon.
The game is afoot! JLOB is
scheduled for Saturday. Whoo-Hoo!
More to do than can
ever be done: Take the ferry boats
from north Seattle out around the San Juan Islands. The ferry boats that cross Lake Michigan between
Michigan and Wisconsin are also worth “doing”.
More to see than can
ever be seen: Whales off the North
Shore of Kauai. Ask JLOB about this as
I did not take the boat-excursion with them that day – much to my regret. Although, watching the boat pull away and
seeing the size of the off shore waves, for sea-sickness-prone me, I am sure
that the trip would have been eventful in other ways than for whale-watching. [Ed. Note: Eric’s memories of this boat ride
may be less pleasant than the rest of us.]
More to know than can
ever be known:
From yesterday’s posting about Australia, I forgot to
mention some other odd tidbits.
Especially in regard to animals.
·
Of course, the continent is home to many unusual
marsupials. Kangaroos being the most
ubiquitous and “like the national animal”.
Also, there are the Koala Bears (which are not members of the bear
family at all – but rather marsupials, like wombats and even kangaroos, though
the koalas “took to the trees”) and the large flightless bird called the EMU
which frequently inhabits crossword puzzles as well as Liberty Mutual Insurance
commercials.
·
Further, we must mention the weird Duck-billed
Platypus which confounded scientific classification by having a bill (like a
duck…duh!) and laying eggs, and like a fish, spending most of their time
underwater - but in most other ways is a mammal!?
·
Due to being an iconic cartoon character in the
United States, the Tasmanian Devil is also associated with its namesake island that
looms, shrouded in mist, off the southern coast of Australia. Like North America’s Wolverine, the Devil’s
persona of tenacious viciousness may or may not be warranted.
·
There was a large predator in Tasmania called
the Tasmanian Wolf that went extinct in the early 20th Century. (Somewhat akin to spottings of Big Foot,
rumored sightings of the Tasmanian Wolf persist to this day.) On the mainland of Australia, I don’t think
there are any large land predators – other than the Wild Dogs.
·
Rabbits were introduced into Australia and
proliferated outside captivity. The
non-native rabbits flourished to such an extent – to the detriment of range
land and native species – that massive eradication efforts ensued. These efforts included the erection of
supposedly rabbit proof fences for hundreds of miles across the Outback. I can’t attest to the efficacy of the
rabbit-squelching efforts such as birth-control. However, I surmise the rabbit-walls were much
like any other border walls (i.e. expensive, impossible to maintain, and
relatively easy to circumvent.) [Ed. Note: There is a 2002 movie, called “Rabbit-Proof
Fences”, if interested.]
·
Lastly, this brings me to Camels. The British brought camels to Australia from
Egypt and Afghanistan under the premise that this animal was well suited to the
desert and distances of the Outback. This premise turned out to be so valid
that – like the non-native rabbits – camels that were turned loose or escaped
thrived in the bush. Thus, to this
date, the Feral Camel population has reached extraordinary numbers. Along with being a menace to humans, the
feral camels cause damage to grazing lands, vegetation and water sources. I gather that when having an encounter with a
wild bull camel in the rutting season the recommended course of action is to
“shoot first and then skedaddle”.
·
As a historical side-note to the Australian
Feral Camels, the U. S. Army had a Camel Corps in Arizona and California for a
brief period at the time of our Civil War.
Like the British Army, the U.S. thought that the deserts of our
Southwest were ideally suited to camels.
In this case, there were never more than a few score of these beasts
“enlisted”; they were not popular, however well suited for the desert they may
have been; and this experiment was quickly curtailed. Of course, the camels were set free and/or
escaped to roam forlornly around Arizona the rest of the 19th
century. The last known wild camel was
killed in the early 1890’s. There was
one camel named the “Red Ghost” that was infamous in local legend and
folk-lore.
I know that at this point and once
again you – my patient readers – are thinking, “Who knows this sh#@? Who cares
about this sh#@? And, Tom’s brain’s hard drive must be close to meltdown and
crashing if he is storing all of this crap?”
There you have it.
TAB
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