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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have never seen a Maori equivalent of a a lei. I suspect that climate may have played a part in that. Before the arrival of Europeans, there were few "flowers" as such here, certainly not with the spectacular blossoms seen in Hawaiian lei. It would take some very nimble fingers to be able to fashion any sort of garland from native flowers. The nearest equivalent was the giving of cloaks, made from different materials according to the stature of the recipient. Kiwi feather cloaks are still made from time to time, as the Department of Conservation often gives dead specimens of culturally important fauna to local Maori for traditional use. Cook Island Maori do make lei, though I'm not sure what they call them. They also give one blossom for the recipient to place above the ear.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There was a story on TV about some high ranking Commonwealth official who put his hand on HRH Elizabeth's back ... puportedly to guide her, or help her up steps, or some such ... the story was about the hoorahrah that "The Touch" caused in Britain!
That's all I heard.
The "high ranking Commonwealth official" in question was the staunchly Republican Paul Keating, then Prime Minister of the penal colony immediately to the west of NZ.
Loki Q.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the great fly by for a lot of migrating birdsYes, a spectacular feature of the E coast isn’t it, Helen? Years ago I worked for Doris Duke on her Somerville NJ estate. Her wildlife-friendly policies were so friendly that several thousand Canada Geese thought “Hm, good pickins here, why move?” So they stayed. All year round. It reached just about crisis proportions eventually – they would eat the hell out of all over-wintered crops on the farm, and until you have seen the guano of several thousand geese paddling about in a small paddock all winter, you do not know the meaning of green and slippery!One time, Doris was at last persuaded that something had to be done if the farm were to survive. Since the prerequisite was being kind to goosy-woosy and money was no object, she actually had loads of staff chasing the fat flightless wonders around the estate with nets, until they could all be scrambled into trucks. They were then trundled up to her place in Rhode Island to be released in their wonderful new home. Took ‘em almost five hours to stagger back to Joisey  And then there were the deer…
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journeyman
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journeyman
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As for a collective of octopuses
Maybe octopuses don't hang out in groups?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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<<Duke's geese>>
'Canadian Blight' is a 'problem' all over the tri-state area. A couple of years ago, one community had a goose roundup and hunters killed about 200 birds with buckshot. They wanted to use the meat to feed the homeless, thus killing two.., but it never made mess. The meat was lead-riddled, and too tough to cut. Of course, all this had been predicted by Burl Ives years before in the Ballad of the Gray Goose.
-Binky
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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<<maybe octopuses don't hang out in groups>>
At least as hatchlings [or newborns?] they do. Groups of thousands of these tiny octopuses near the water's surface are a feast for seagulls and very few survive. [trulykon]
-binky
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
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On death for interfering with the Royal Swans (or downing them when they should have been upped, whatever): it might have been a crime in the Middle Ages, but all such wacky offences (being obliged to practice the crossbow, shoot Scotsmen in York etc.) were wiped off the statute books in massive culls around 1850. Any mention of them being current is an urban myth.
I think high treason and arson in a naval dockyard were the last capital offences, abolished only a few years ago. High treason (crimen laesae majestatis) included the usual things like murdering the monarch and rebellion, but also compassing or imagining the death, wounding, or imprisonment of the King, Queen, or Prince of Wales. Which puts a bit of a damper on innocent speculation if you take it too literally.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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wiped off the statute books in massive culls around 1850
Yes, Dear Nicholas from London, but what about the hoorahrah caused by The Touch?
Max Q said in above post that it happened in Australia ... was the outcry confined to that Commonwealth outpost or did the London press also carry the story? Send by PM if you'd rather, and have time.
Thank you
wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Maverick: What the geese eat is one thing. What they leave behind is something else.There was a story in Smithsonian Magazine about a large company in Virginia with wide landscaped surroundings including a large pond. When geese got to be unbearable, they had a Border Collie specially trained to herd them into the pond. Allegedly the geese wanted the grass, and left when denied it. And the bleeding heart tree huggers could not complain geese had been abused.
In the same area I was concerned about Dulles Airport having to tolerate large numbers of geese flying to and from a pond close to runways. One goose could destroy an engine and cause a crash.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have never seen even one octopus in the wild. But once in a while the Cape Cod Canal would have many, many squid, same family but the size of a hotdog, come through with bluefish slaughtering them, and the beaches would be littered with dead ones.
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