G'morning James, 

 JB> I can't even recall on which companys' broadcast I saw them on. (Of
 JB> course they would have been converted from PAL/SECAM/whatever to
 JB> NTSC, so that info would surely be superfluous.) It was
 JB> before Paul Hogan became a household name, so it was just a
 JB> jolly way to spend some time. No significance was imparted,
 JB> besides it was making my side hurt.

He was first famous here in NZ for fronting a very successful 
Winston ciggarettes campaign in the late 70's ... and then he was 
a major hit in the Croccodile Dundee series...

 JB> I just saw a TV show about the globalisation of species.
 JB> One Marine Biologist in Oakland California spotted *one*
 JB> native species in a trap set off their coast. Zebra Muscles
 JB> are taking over our seaway. Caribou herds in Alaska are
 JB> down... We get it everywhere I guess. I'm close to being on
 JB> a desert here, so we tend to remain rather immune to *much*
 JB> encroachment.

Mmmm ... the nicest invader since me has been the Barrat's 
Swallow;  blown over the Tasman some 15 years ago, they are now 
everywhere in the Auckland area, swooping around aerobatically as 
they feast on flying insects ... and nesting impossibly in nooks 
and crannies on buildings.

 JB> Well, I have a Canadian (eh) accent, but I'll have to work
 JB> on the 'expert' part. 

Not a major challenge - wander around Auckland airport muttering 
gibberish ("This place needs a rigorous disestablishmentarism with 
macro eco-politics..") and some lovely Kiwi will whip you off in a 
limo and install you behind a humungous desk somewhere rich...

 JB> You start the night before, or the morning of? 

Before first light on the morning of;  sip steadily through the 
day ... and end up staring at the nth bottle around early evening, 
knowing that it is one bottle too much for the day.

Real problem is that n deminishes as age grows... 

 MM> Yup - New Zealand is 1400 miles long, running from the sub-tropics
 MM> to the deep South,  with huge vineyards distributed up and down
 MM> the coasts in the Middle Earth regions...

 JB> The top soil would be ancient volcanic, but shallow?

It's not the dark red volcanic togsoil that coasts the volcanic 
regions of Queensland, Australia;  the volcano outside our front 
windows is only 800 years old (no bubbly at all for its b'day), 
and its surface is porous scoria, dark grey in colour.

NZ was solid rainforest when the first humans arrived about 900 
years ago,  so I guess top soil is loaded with its remains...

 MM> y'say ?  Jeez, they were allowed to get the cows and the wood in,
 MM> given the run of the kitchen - and all the kids they wanted -
 MM> why'd they want to run the country as well ?  At least it keeps
 MM> them out the pub,,,,
 JB> ...And if you can keep 'em barefoot, and pregnant? 

That seems to come naturally...

 MM> If you ever get to tour Warwick Castle, visit their dungeons; the
 MM> equipment is original,  and the displays leave nothing to the
 MM> imagination over the administration of medieval justive...
 JB> When you say "original", do you mean that they are novel
 JB> inventions to Warwick Castle, or - more likely - 'tools'
 JB> indicative of the era?

It is claimed that most of the gear came with the dungeons... it 
certainly features a lot of hand-forged iron that's well-worn and 
etched with rust...

 JB> Imagine Thousands of SUV drivers EAGER to evade capture.

That's NZ !

 JB> Those with an "Extended existence" tend to get themselves
incarcerated
 JB> here. [-|{ Just be sure to feed the rest of the system, whilst
 JB> you bolster the spirits would you? 

Hey, this is the land of too-much-plenty - its hard to maintain a 
slim profile here...

:-))
 
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