Holidays that really mean something.

On many years, Australia Day coincides with Thomas Crapper Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper). The anniversary of the death of the man who popularized the flush toilet.

I got in a lot of trouble with my 9th grade social studies teacher (who was Australian) over that one, let me tell you.

Awesome, thank you for giving me another reason to consider Australia the land of death and poison--I was not aware of the cone snail before now. :)

Well, from my point of view, yesterday was Australia Day. But we're done with it now, so I don't see any problem letting the rest of you have a go at it now. Get drunk (on whatever you want), eat something off the barbie (it doesn't matter what, as long as it's barbequed), and get bitten by something (again, free choice, but try for something non-venomous).

And they put sliced beets on their cheeseburgers - with a fried egg! WIN!

hmmm... I like cheesburgers. I like beets. I like eggs. And yet, I'd never thought to put the three together...

Hello!

I hope you don't mind -- Neatorama is this great blog that now lets fans submit blog posts, and I submitted a wee little promotion for Red Roses and Dead Things.

Seeing as they have a 'zombie' tag, I thought it'd fit in.

http://www.neatorama.com/upcoming/post/Red-Roses-and-Dead-Things

I'll let you know if it posts to the main page.

Curse you Seanan! I looked up cone snail in Wikipedia, and found this "well-written" gem:

Live cone snails should be handled with care or not handled at all, as they are capable of "stinging" humans with unpleasant results.

*hides*

You have a holiday for every day? Wow, wish I could see that calendar.

Please not to be forgetting the blue-ringed octopus, a pretty little thing the size of a golf ball whose lethal poison has no known antidote, and the platypus, one of the world's few poisonous mammals, who looks cuddly, but whose venom can cause weeks of excruciating pain that doesn't respond to morphine.

Ah, I love my suburnt country...

*Sun*burnt. I love my sunburnt country. Grrr.

And on the non-fatal side, let's not forget to celebrate Australia's fine folk music traditions, from "Irish Lords" to "Travelin' Down The Castlereagh", to flocks and flocks of sheep-shearing songs.

My favorite holidays are Bad Poetry Day and World Sandwich Day and Icecream Day. :D

My birthday is Waiting for the Barbarians Day? Cool!

Ahhh, the fair land of Australia! Not to be confused with New Zealand (those two blips beneath Australia somewhere) where nothing can kill you- I mean nothing. There are no indemic, non-domesticated animals. The only land mammals are a couple little bats. Goats and deer, if they aren't fenced, are considered ferral and must be shot. The possum, which my dad confused with a Koala when he was here are adorable and make nice hats. Life is so easy here, the birds don't even bother to have wings, cause like, what could you possibly need to fly away from. The scariest thing here is four million mindless sheep coming at you down the middle of the road.

The frightening thing is, a lot of New Zealander vacation in Australia and they have no idea that any animal could possibly hurt you, let alone kill you extremely dead.

I miss Grizzly bears. They made me feel alive. That is all!

Dude, I live in Melbourne! Well, a 40-minute train ride from the City, but still, same state... ;-) I probably won't be able to afford to attend the Con, but I'd be happy to meet up with anyone interested. You can even make fun of my ridiculous accent! ;-)

Have a lovely day! :-)

(*I seriously have a holiday for every single day of the year, and sometimes more than one. Because the world needs more to celebrate.)

I agree, strongly.

Don't forget kangaroos (whose powerful hind legs with three inch claws can disembowl a human quicker than, well, pretty much anything), red-back spiders (who *do* like to hide on the underside of the rim of the toilet seat in many areas), trapdoor spiders (who literally sit in the ground, under their little trapdoors, and wait for unsuspecting prey - including human feet/hands etc to disturb the door), white-tailed spiders (whose venom, while not especially toxic, can trigger an allergic reaction in susceptible people that literally eats the skin off the body), bluebottles (Portuguese Man O' War), box jellyfish and irukandji (another stinging jellyfish) - all of which have cause fatalities, stingrays (think Steve Irwin) scorpion fish, crocodiles and last, but not least, Sharks (including the Great White and tiger sharks). We had a fatal shark attack on my most local beach (Port Kennedy, Western Australia) just a few weeks ago (even if it was the first in my memory along our stretch of coastline, and probably the first in the recorded history of the area).

However, becoming a victim of any of our most dangerous creatures is extremely difficult - unless you go looking for them. Snakes are mostly extremely shy, sharks rarely attack, and many beaches are either netted or patrolled, and the probability of spiderbite, kangaroo attack and crocodile attack are so low as to be almost nil. The statistics speak for themselves: Shark Attack, Spider bites, and just about everything else

Seriously, folks, Australia has some fantastic animals. But they are not hopping down Main Street, or dropping from trees onto unsuspecting tourists (there's no such thing as a 'drop bear'), or roaming our oceans searching for their next meal (well, ok, some are, but that meal is not generally human). Most of them are on display in either Zoos or Wildlife Sanctuaries, or visible on tourist trips to the Outback or areas outside suburbia. The cities and suburbs are a lot like the rest of the Western world - where dogs and wild birds (such as magpies) are the greatest natural threat to any person, and human beings and vehicles are more likely to harm you than anything you can find in the wild.

Australia is beautiful. Unique. There is no other place on earth quite like Australia. For such a young country, we have an incredibly rich and diverse history and culture, and we will welcome you with open arms and open hearts.

We can't wait to meet you :)


When did I become a blogging advertisement for the Tourism Commission?!? *boggles*

I dunno, those maggies can get pretty vicious around nesting time. Hence why school children will wear ice cream tubs on their heads during play time.

I can't believe you ruined the myth about drop bears. Ah well, as long as you don't tell anyone hoop snakes don't exist either. ;)

Hee, I love you.

But I don't particularly want to kill anyone, or hate the human race. Is there something wrong with me? :(

Yay! Thank you for celebrating... umm... us.