This page is dedicated to interesting things that catch our attention. There is no unifying theme beyond our impression that this stuff is odd, funny, amazing or just totally cool.

Cool Stuff


5 July 09

Float Plane As transoceanic travelers know airlines try to keep you occupied by showing a map of the world and your flight path across it. It's amazingly boring, but everyone watches the plane follow the line. When we arrived in Malta and the red dotted line disappeared, all we saw was the plane. Malta's so tiny, there was no island there! That's Scicily on the right and Tunisia on the left. Oh, yes, the Arabic shows we took Air Emirates.


28 May 09

Tax Shelter Cyprus has a number of unusual saints, one of whom is St. Mamas. The story goes that Mamas was a hermit who refused to pay his income tax since his only income was from alms. The governor ordered him arrested, but as he was being led into custody, a lion -- unknown in the area -- leapt onto a lamb grazing nearby. Mamas commanded the lion to stop his attack, picked up the lamb and rode the lion to the governor's office. Impressed, the governor exempted Mamas from taxes, and he became the patron of Tax Evaders.
Lesson: If the story is improbable enough, maybe even the IRS will buy it.


29 March 09

Time Of Confusion Daylight Savings Time ended in Western Australia where we lived. When it's 6:00 AM in WA, it is 7:30 in the Northern Territory, 8:00 in Queensland, 8:30 in South Australia and 9:00 AM in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.


27 March 09

Mr. Manners We love this poster on our local train. It hangs above a Priority Seat, but its message hasn't gotten through to everyone. Recently a pregnant woman got on during morning rush hour and asked a teenage boy to move from the Priority Seat so she could sit because she was feeling ill. He refused. At that very timely moment the woman's breakfast made a reappearance, directly hitting the teenager. It brought a round of applause from the other passengers and made the evening news.


15 February 09

Victoria Bitter VB is Aussie-speak for Victoria Bitter, one of the legendary Australian beers. Though we've sampled many others, it is our favorite. We are apparently not alone. Check it out!

12 February 09

Road Work Don't know. Dog Is Our Co-Pilot.
Initially, we thought this was Margaret River's "Riddle of the Week," and were stumped. Turns out, skipper = designated driver, a concern in a winery-dense area.


15 January 09

Coffee Shop L especially likes this café for its coffee cup mural on the back wall, made from five different colors of coffee cups and representing his servings in a week! They serve iced coffee a lot in Australia, though some like it hot. He's squinting. You should try squinting, too.


Archive Visit the last Cool Stuff page.