G'morning James, 

 JB> We seem to have Purple Loostrife [sp?] and West Nile Virus.
 JB> After that, the lack of humidity seems to be a rather
 JB> effective barrier. (Not being an ecologist, mind you.)

All true - this morning's paper has a big articles warning of 
tropAsian Tiger mossies and Chilean fire ants as unwanted 
invaders...

 JB> Just two problems there: A) I tend towards
 JB> *antidisestablishmentariarianistic* thinking, and B) Sounds
 JB> like work! 

Not at all - the lines above above qualify you nicely - your new 
NZ p.a's will sort out the `work'...

 JB> Don't get me wrong. I imbibe, but I garnered a crash course on the drug
 JB> when a family member had his fill. And I aint talkin' for the
 JB> night!

Family instilled enjoyment and moderation, so I have only become 
seriously drunk twice that I can recall;  my birthday quoffing 
takes me to a physical fullness limit beyond which there's no 
possible enjoyment ... and I do like slurping bubbly wine ...

 JB> Moiry [sp?] is the native population, but only suspected of
 JB> being in existence for less than a millennium?

They're termed `Maori',  and they turned right from the human 
migration that populated the early Americas, and took over eastern 
China.  Linguistic and DNA studies have them peopling Taiwan 
before taking to the seas to follow earlier migrations to the 
Phillines and the Indonesian Islands,  their prowess at long- 
distance canoeing then populating the 
Melanesian/Polynesian/Hawaiian islands about 1500 years ago - as 
far as Easter and Pitcairn Islands;  their sweet potato (the 
kumara) was picked up off the South America coast.

The first Maori settlers reached NZ 750 years ago,  making it the 
last major land mass to be humanised.  The first European settlers 
joined them in 1792 - 208 years ago...  and between them, the 
newcomers have transformed the place into a pleasant memory of 
their imagined home-lands....

 JB> So far, only one female Prime Minister, and she adopted
 JB> the position only to be promptly voted out.  Nudge-nudge...>

Sadly,  we're on our second - and this one's an ex-lecturer in 
political `science' who's out to prove all her theories on how it 
really should be - by winning a third term in office.  
Consequently,  we breathe, eat and live `PC'...

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

 JB> All castles housed at least one smithy plus a few
 JB> apprentices, so they might have well been unique
 JB> implements. The chore - I would imagine - would be keeping
 JB> them in the confines of the crypt for any length of time.

Difficult to imagine some light-fingered SM freak pocketing their 
Iron Maiden, hand-bagging a rack or half-inching an oubliette !  
Especially when Security have a frightening variety of immediately 
administratible punishing devices just begging for public 
demonstration...

 MM> Hey, this is the land of too-much-plenty - its hard to maintain a
 MM> slim profile here...
 JB> Coming from the land of *much-too-plenty*; I can relate.

I'm on the Board of a local Intermediate School here (a Junior 
High) which hosted a visit from an American school last term;  I 
was ready to meet some really solid teacher/parents - but not to 
see some 30 12yr-olds already waddling ponderously as they 
circumnavigated the school grounds ... sadly, such obesity is 
slowly becoming a way of life here, too, and the medics are 
forecasting a drop in the population's ages of death if something 
is not done about it...

Nil desparandum !  The bubbles in the wine keep me afloat...

:-)) 
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