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Two unrelated things.
Aug. 10th, 2002 10:20 am#1: A couple of weeks ago, Rey and Ratboy and I visited the New Orleans Aquarium, and stood on a balcony over a rather impressive shark tank.
The other day it collapsed, spilling ten people into the tank.
*shiftylook*
#2: A perennial source of amusement. Reminded of this by Nancy's comments on accents.
In Australia, there is a bird called the kookaburra. It greets the morning with a very distinctive oo-oo-a-a-a-a laugh; unless you live deep in the city, you probably wake up to this sound every day.
But somewhere along the line, somebody (probably from Hollywood) decided that it made a great "weird jungle bird" noise. So, every time you see a movie set in a jungle, you can be pretty sure you'll hear a kookaburra laughing to reinforce the point that This Is An Exotic Jungle. Which, to Australians, is about as silly as it would be to use a rooster crowing.
Similarly... we have a couple of rather beautiful pythons (carpet and diamond pythons) that are easy to work with and - to American eyes - not obviously a harmless snake in the same way a corn snake would be. So, every other 'venomous snake' in a Hollywood film is, in fact, a carpet or diamond python. Imagine how James Bond films would look if the bad guys kept putting corn snakes in his bed - that's what it's like for us.
And this is why the kookaburra laughs.
The other day it collapsed, spilling ten people into the tank.
*shiftylook*
#2: A perennial source of amusement. Reminded of this by Nancy's comments on accents.
In Australia, there is a bird called the kookaburra. It greets the morning with a very distinctive oo-oo-a-a-a-a laugh; unless you live deep in the city, you probably wake up to this sound every day.
But somewhere along the line, somebody (probably from Hollywood) decided that it made a great "weird jungle bird" noise. So, every time you see a movie set in a jungle, you can be pretty sure you'll hear a kookaburra laughing to reinforce the point that This Is An Exotic Jungle. Which, to Australians, is about as silly as it would be to use a rooster crowing.
Similarly... we have a couple of rather beautiful pythons (carpet and diamond pythons) that are easy to work with and - to American eyes - not obviously a harmless snake in the same way a corn snake would be. So, every other 'venomous snake' in a Hollywood film is, in fact, a carpet or diamond python. Imagine how James Bond films would look if the bad guys kept putting corn snakes in his bed - that's what it's like for us.
And this is why the kookaburra laughs.
