Happy Australia Day!
Don’t you love looking at a paper calendar (I have yet found a digital one that does) and finding out that the day is some random holiday in another country that you know nothing about? I do. That’s why today I’m celebrating Australia Day with a blog post devoted to it. Now I’ll be the only person I know who celebrates Australia Day except for the calendar on my fridge.
According to Wikipedia, Australia Day celebrates “the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland.” This means nothing to me but I bet most Australians take pride in knowing their country was founded 300 years ago. I personally don’t have much pride in American traditions (I have a hard time differentiating between patriotism and fascism) but I encourage others to be proud of their country.
Krazy Koalas
To celebrate, I made a boomerang, which in my mind is like an Australian treasure, based on a surprising event I watched on Saturday. You see, Kristina and I went to the LA Zoo this weekend and saw some really cool koalas. At first, one koala was hiding behind a bushy part of a tree, right at a fork of two branches. The second was at the top of one of the branches, trying to climb onto the roof of this enclosure built around the tree. After watching only a short period of time, the koala at the top of the branch decided it was bored of being at the top and started to climb down.
When it got near the hidden koala, it started reaching for it. It was actually kind of funny because the koala would first lunge for the other, realize it can’t reach, pull back to climb further down the branch and try again. It slowly did this 3 or 4 times before it actually got a hand on the other koala. The attacking koala grabbed the victim’s butt and then pulled.
In response to the attack, the second koala started hissing and then wacked the first koala in the head! The first koala of course growled back and exchanged a blow.
After a few bites and scratches, the original attacker lost his grip and fell to the base of the tree. In defeat, the opposer climbed across a pole that was horizontally attached between two trees while the defender hissed and growled. It was definitely a sight!
I always assumed that koalas were nothing but nice but I guessed wrong. For what seemed like no good reason, one koala just flat out attacked another. For this reason, I designed my boomerang with a killer koala design. I hope you like the blood!
