The Hive

There is a conscientious Tweeter from Brisbane, Australia, @JustKenKing, who could easily qualify as a near-champion Tweeter. She is a former operating room nurse who has reminted herself as a Digital Media Content Editor at ABC--that's the Australian Broadcasting Company.

Jen has a common interest in obituaries, so the Tweet matchup of myself, @jdemet, and @JustJenKing was almost inevitable. In the old days, following someone from the other side of the globe would be called being in touch with your "pen pal." That's when contact was achieved through postage, envelopes, paper and pen. No collection of foreign stamps in the digital world.

The advantage of following someone from Australia is that the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are the reverse of our own in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, when Ms. King posts a picture, which she does sometimes several times a day, we can be treated to sunny skies, beach scenes, and budding flowers, when here in the Northeast we're turning the outside water off, putting hoses away, and in general getting ready for cold weather and likely snow.

There is also the 14-hour time difference between New York and Brisbane. Brisbane is 14 hours ahead of New York, so right now this puts Ms. King likely asleep at 12:30 A.M. on Monday morning. She's either already had a good day or a bad one, while ours is still undecided.

Several times @JustJenKing has posted pictures of lizards on the hoods of cars in the parking lot, kangaroos at the end of a residential street, wallabies and koala bears, all mixed in with an urban population. This has led to an exchange of how Australia has a pervasive wildlife in non-wild surroundings, in contrast to the domestic cats and dogs we have, along with, depending on where you live, the possibility of cockroaches, New York's least favorite pet.

One of the postings was a collage of pictures lifted from her news station's access. The above photo was taken by a French tourist who was observant of the same thing I was taken with: Australia's intruding wildlife.

The photo is authentic Australian, since a close look at the upper right hand corner shows NSW, (New South Wales), Transport, Roads and Maritime Services. The photo was taken in Broken Hill, an isolated, old mining city in the far western portion of New South Wales. Broken Hill apparently is a popular tourist attraction. Finding French people taking pictures of what appears to be an outdoor sign on a public roadside comfort station is therefore nothing unusual. If I was there, I'd have done the same thing.

No one likes to be stung. Especially in the bee-hind.

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