Hi G - ta for enormous reply



 GG>> Why is it I get the feeling most Ozztralians assume all of

 GG>> USA is nothing but concrete and city??



 RM> Didn't you say earlier that (a) it would take you two hours to get

 RM> to a country sky, and (b) even the country sky is light polluted?



 GG> There's the difference.  The light from the cities radiates and you can

 GG> be miles away and there are glowing areas that you can point to and say

 GG> "This is CityX and there's CityZ and there's CityY".



 GG> What I was thinking of is the areas I've been that really ARE pitch

 GG> black at night, where you can look up in the sky and the stars are so

 GG> bright...  and to get to these places it really is a long way out.



 GG> All the little towns here are always lit right up too, so you have to

 GG> go where they can't afford that kinda nonsense and distance yourself a

 GG> few towns/cities from it.



And you need to ask

  GG>> Why is it I get the feeling most Ozztralians assume all of

  GG>> USA is nothing but concrete and city??

???? 



 GG> My brother moved "up north" several years ago and had me help by

 GG> driving one of the vehicles.  I was fine until it got evening/night

 GG> time because it was the first time I'd been anywhere without a lot of

 GG> light at night.  I was totally disorientated by it.  You'd of been in

 GG> heaven                                              ***have***



Asleep, actually. I have a "trance mode" when I'm distance driving.

There's only so many things I can think about when I'm doing

nothing, so it's easier to just turn off. This only works when I'm

wide awake and alert, btw, it's bloody dangerous if I'm tired.



 GG> Hmm, come to think of it these places with all the light are the ones

 GG> with a crime rate or big fear of crime.  The areas where it's dark at

 GG> night don't seem to have much crime.   Curious.



There's a school of thought about exactly that. It says that

housebreakers like bright lights at night, it means that they can

(a) check out prospects easily, and (b) break in without using

torches that can be easily seen by neighbours. There is an actual

test case of a town that turned off its street lights after

midnight, and recorded a lower crime rate when the lights were off.



And there's a small town in England that recently defeated a motion

in local council to put in its first street light. A new resident

thought it was too dark, the rest of the locals liked the night

sky.





 RM> Is Saginaw where you are? And if so, why does it take 2 hours to

 RM> get out? A road planner on LSD? or caffeine?



 GG> Saginaw is where I am, yes.  Home of one of General Motors key Steering

 GG> Gear operations.  (There's a bit of trivia for you).



 "It took me two weeks".... never mind, I'll get stomped on



 RM> (I just now tried to impress Jan with my trivia knowledge of

 RM> Saginaw's population, mentioning that you were there, and she said

 RM> rather darkly "Yes, I like to keep track of where your girlfriends

 RM> are." Be warned. Her sister is *real* nasty.)



 GG> Careful!  Mine's nastier.  Looks like Gillian Anderson but has more

 GG> attitude.



Jan's dad (rip) had a story when Janice and Denise (fraternal

twins) were tiny: Screams were heard. Parents ran into room. Jan

was on floor yelling. Denise was standing up, and indignantly

defended herself with "I was talking to her, and she fell asleep,

so I kicked her in the face until she woke up."



Just how nasty is *your* sister?







 GG>> "excited" because I saw a book store where they actually give

 GG>> you a shopping cart to browse with.



 RM> Bliss



 GG> Same here.  And I came back with nothing.  Today my Ex-to-be decided to

 GG> torture me and talked me into going to the local Mall.



 Have you seen the mall reference in the "Last 10 Things

That A Man Will Say" in this echo? Does this mean your ex-to-be is

*really* ex-to-be?





 GG>> Take your US assumptions and shove 'em, Roy.

 RM>

 RM> YEOWWW! Ouch! Ouch! Oooohh that stings! Aaaarrgghh! Ooooohhh!

 RM> Oooooh! Uuuuuuuummmmmmm... Aaaaahhhhh... Oooooooo... Just twist it

 RM> a bit... Gently, gently... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh..... A bit to

 RM> the left..... Oh yessssss.......



 GG>   Was it good for you?  ;-)



ohh yesss... Please correct me on more US assumptions, mistress...

like why the residents in some US town (i forget which, sorry)

rejected the name "Wagga Wagga Drive" for a new road even though

Wagga Wagga is one of their sister cities just because they can't

pronounce it...



 GG> Aside to Rod:  See Honey, other people make noise sometimes too and say

 GG> things like YES!  :-)



hey, in this country, we'll say anything at all if it would just

bloody rain



Cheers



--- PPoint 1.88