michi might be on to something here. Chickens are getting bigger, as we all know (although I'm assured that there's no truth in the story that they're fed steroids). On the other hand, so are babies.

FainaAgain, luckily I live in falling-fowl-free Canberra, a 5-hour drive from the epicentre of the attacks. Just as well, as I don't have an attic to slow the buggers down.

Scarlett, I just noticed your reference to live-chicken-throwing fights in Florida. You've really sparked my interest. If this is a widespread custom, you've got to admit that it's not a lot less weird than the falling chickens of Newcastle. Tell us more.

JohnInMiami would have to start at short odds in that sort of contest.

So will this be the next subject that Jack Cafferty of CNN discusses on his segment of American Mornings, the falling chickens in OZ versus the throwing of chickens in Florida? And who said all the news was depressing?

I don't know for sure Neil and Scarlett, but before this story is finished you two may be interviewed on Oprah. LOL.

Oh, thank you all, I do enjoy a good giggle! I hate to admit it but it took a couple of days for this great new item to hit the NZ news bulletins!!

Actually, can someone out there help my memory, please? I seem to recall a similar incident some years ago but for the life of me I can't remember where it was, and what the reason was. Anyone out there with a forgettery better than mine? I hope so.
Dot.

LoveItaly: it's good if Oprah, not Jerry Springer, interviews them ;)

In case anyone complains that this subject has nothing to do with travel, please be prepared to tell them about chickens flying through the sky, chickens crossing the road, chicken toes at the Cairns airport. Ain't that travel?

And cows? Who said they can't fly? How did that cow get to jump over the moon in "Hey Diddle Diddle" if it couldn't fly.

This thread brings to mind the radio saga of the "most fantastic crime fighter the world has ever known!"

Chickenman! He's everywhere, he's everywhere!

There was a story about 10 years ago(I remember it from Darwin Awards, dunno it's it's true), when most of the Russian block were reconfiguring and poverty was rampant, that 4 yahoos flying a small cargo plane found a cow wandering the street near the airstrip they landed at. Well, they just couldn't let that cow go, it was too precious. So they decided to take it with them.

Well, once in the unpressurized plane at flying altitude, the cow started panicking and kicking the plane and people apart. They decided that they had to get rid of the cow. So they opened the rear cargo hatch and pushed it while out over the ocean.

The cow struck a Japanese fishing boat with such force that it sunk it. The captain of the boat was fired and deminished in rank for lying about the reason his boat sunk. After all, who could believe that a cow fell out of the sky?

The story of the Russian pilots somehow came out and the Japanese captain was restored.

Watch out for flying cows :)

...and surfing bulls.

A friend in Cairns once told me of an incident in which flooding caused by a tropical cyclone washed a number of cattle out to sea. Some were rescued by boat, some swam back to shore, and I suppose some were lost.

The next day, when the weather had cleared, a party of Japanese tourists were strolling on a beach to the north of the city when a large, dark shape was seen in the surf. Eventually a large, sodden and furious Texas Longhorn bull rolled into the shallows, got to its feet, glared at the nearest of the horrified tourists and charged. To this day Japanese tourists have been deterred by legends of the homicidal amphibian bulls of Far North Queensland.

I don't know dear readers. My father was raised in Australia and had a few strange stories to tell but I have to say that I have never heard stranger stories then on this board. LOL.

And I thought California was a bit weird.

Do you people from OZ just make up these stories to keep travelers away?
Or is it because most of you have a bit too much to drink and imagine things?

Or what?

I mean really, when one wakes up in California at 6:00am and our Neil is being discussed by Jack Cafferty on CNN one does think "what"?

And then when a dear friend in Florida states that there they are known for throwing chickens at each other once again one thinks "what"? So maybe we are not so crazy and strange in California after all.

And now I read about cows. They are thrown from airplanes. They more or less scare the you know what out of Japenese tourist on the beach in Australia.

And today I read something about frogs in Australia. Do not remember the details but they were ugly buggers.

Good grief, what else can we expect?

Still waiting on details of the Florida chicken-throwing contest - but it probably doesn't compete with dwarf-throwing, which I think is a contribution by the reliably eccentric English.

The frogs were probably cane toads, LoveItaly, but they're not natives - I think we imported them from Hawaii. Trust me, they are very ugly buggers, and a hopping environmental disaster.

Bill Bryson's book on Australia managed to unearth more weird things than I knew about - including an apparent and unnoticed nuclear test conducted on a remote cattle station by a mad Japanese sect.

Cal-i-forn-ia, here I come....

Oh dear Neil, I can hardly wait until you and your dear wife arrive! That lunch or dinner offer still stands!

And BTW, you at least know how to pronounce California, which is more than our Governor does!!

Neil, you cow story reminded me of a story my grandfather used to tell...

He graduated from high school in Texas in the 1930's. The school had a tradition where the graduating class played some kind of prank on the principal. The goal was to pull a bigger and better prank than the last class did.

For the last few weeks of school, my grandfather and his friends would meet secretly at one of the boys' ranches. The plan was to hoist a cow onto the roof of the school. Living in poor, rural west Texas, the equipment to complete such a task was not readily available, so they designed a harness for the cow and built a block & tackle system to lift it onto the roof.

They put the cow on the roof in the middle of the night. When daylight came and the cow was up there mooing, the whole town came out to see what all the commotion was about! Of course it didn't take long for the principal to figure out who was behind such a stunt. The boys had to come out and take the cow down before they would be allowed to graduate.

Come to think of it, Neil, since you will be visiting Vancouver Island on your next journey, you may as well go to a place near Parksville about one or two hours north. There you will see goats grazing on the roof of a (commerical) log cabin.

Now this might be seen in other countries but is somewhat unusual in Canada.

That should have read "one or two hours north of Victoria."

See! Australia IS different!
Come and have a look!