james nunn | blog

Thank you to my fabulous friend Steve for finding this gem.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get at this time of year is (or has been), “how does Australia celebrate Thanksgiving?” The simple answer is that we don’t. As Wikipedia explains,

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks for the things that one has at the conclusion of the harvest season. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.

This has got me thinking though. Does Australia have anything like Thanksgiving as an alternate holiday or celebration? Given that both the USA and Australia share only a small part of the same history (British beginnings), the similarities (at least until recent years) have been quite small, and the intial interactions with the indigenous Australians was quite different to the one experienced initially in the USA.

It’s important to note that while settlement and colonization of both countries was done by the British, the reasons for finding these new homes were very different, and provide a sound reason for explaining why the USA and Australia are vastly different on many issues. In the case of the USA, colonizers were escaping religious persecution from the British. In the case of Australia, the British needed a place to ship prisoners of the Crown. (This is an overly simplistic view of the history, but the detail is not important for this blog post.)

So after spending a little time thinking about this, and doing a small amount of research on the Internets, I confirmed what I had originally throught. Australia has no similar holiday to the North American Thanksgiving Holiday. (Interesting, no?)

Will it never end? Hopefully not The latest “Men of …” style calendar is the “Men of Mortuaries” which features funeral directors and morticians from across the U.S. So far my favorites are Mr. November, Mr. July, and Mr. March (a good month).

For those that didn’t know:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard today for the first time linked the war in Iraq to the need to safeguard the world’s oil supplies.

Howard made the comments in an announcement of defense policy changes, including the development of a closer relationship with China and Japan.

With an election looming in the near future, I’m not surprised with Howard’s announcement, as it alleviates many of the issues surrounding Australia’s involvement with the war in Iraq and his knowledge that Australians are wising up to the reality of the US-led war. The fact that my mother is not voting for Howard’s party this coming election is a real indication of how the tides are turning against the Liberal Party in Australia.

I’ve been a bad blogger, and not the good kind of bad blogger. Only a few more days and I’ll be able to get back to my bon-bons and blogging.

For those that missed the eclipse last night, here are some images that others took and then compiled into a composite. Thanks to kottke.org for the heads up.

• Gary Turner’s Flickr
• T. Baatar Flickr
• Big Huge Labs

NASA has a page that lists all the projected future lunar eclipses here. (The next total eclipse is scheduled for August 28, and is expected to last 17 minutes longer than last nights.)

And then there are some videos of the actual lunar eclipse here, here and here.

In an interview with the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Suze Orman has the following interaction:

Are you married? I’m in a relationship with life. My life is just out there. I’m on the road every day. I love my life.

Meaning what? Do you live with anyone? K.T. is my life partner. K.T. stands for Kathy Travis. We’re going on seven years. I have never been with a man in my whole life. I’m still a 55-year-old virgin.

Would you like to get married to K.T.? Yes. Absolutely. Both of us have millions of dollars in our name. It’s killing me that upon my death, K.T. is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa.

And there you have it. A matter of fact, simple statement. No big deal, and no angels falling from the heavens (except the ones getting caught with their wings around their ankles).

CNN has reported that Anna Nicole Smith has died.

Source: CNN