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John Stewart
 
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Default Cockroach Race

Gambling-Mad Aussies Flock to
Annual Cockroach Race

Mon Jan 19, 8:29 AM ET


By Belinda Goldsmith

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -
Gambling-mad Australians, teased
for willingly betting on two flies
crawling up a wall, have expanded their
horizons -- now they're placing bets
on cockroaches.

A record crowd of
more than 7,000 betters is
expected to
attend the 23rd annual
Cockroach Races
in the east coast city of
Brisbane Jan. 26,
Australia's national day,
with some
bringing their own runners and
others buying
competitors there.

"More and more
people are coming to town
especially for
this premier racing event, where
everyone can be the owner of a
thoroughbred," said organizer Richard
Deery, general manager of Brisbane's
Story Bridge Hotel that hosts the
races.

As the story goes, the race dates
back to the day 23 years ago when
two old betters were sitting in the
bar arguing over which suburb had the
biggest and fastest cockroaches.

Australia is home to about 450
native species of cockroach, which are
not pests and are mainly bush
dwellers, and also has around six
species of pest cockroach, most of
them introduced from outside the
continent and that now plague almost
every house.

The two betters decided to race some
roaches the next day -- and
history was made.

Australians have the highest rate of
gambling in the world, a passion
dating back to when the first
convict settlers, shipped out from Britain in
1788, reportedly bet on cards and
dice.

By the early 1800s, horse racing was
the rage but this has now been
overtaken by the flashing slot or
poker machines that line the walls of
almost every pub, hotel and casino.
More than 20 percent of the world's
poker machines are in Australia,
about five times as many as in the
United States on a per capita basis.

GAMBLING NATION

National gambling statistics
released late last year showed Australians
gambled away a record A$15 billion
($12 billion) in the year to June 2002
-- nearly two percent of Gross
Domestic Product and slightly more than
the nation's defense budget.

Few Australians balk at betting. The
nation grinds to a standstill every
year for the Melbourne Cup horse
race and the nation's richest man,
Kerry Packer, is an unrepentant
gambler, known for spending millions at
the baccarat table. Packer probably
won't be spotted cheering on his
favorite roach, but Deery said
increasing numbers of people were
heading to Brisbane to bet on the 14
races that are run over the day with
contestants encouraged to train and
bring their own cockroaches.

Last year's winner, Osama bin Liner,
was lovingly reared by his owners
who turned up on the day in full
beards and headwear, dressed as the
world's most wanted man. Other past
winners include Drain Lover,
whose name plays on that of two-time
Melbourne Cup winner Rain Lover,
Millennium Bug and Guns'n Roaches,
whose contestants modeled
themselves on the rock band Gun'N
Roses, carrying their roaches in
boxes shaped like tiny guitars.

Deery said people who lacked time to
trap and train their own six-legged
runners could buy a cockroach from
the house stable for A$5 ($4) but
warned that demand always
outstripped supply. All funds raised go to a
local children's hospital.

The races are held on a circular
track with the cockroaches released
from an upturned bucket in the
middle. First to the edge is the winner.
The steeplechase event is a bit
trickier with the runner having to navigate
a circular fence -- well, a garden
hose -- to get to the edge.

Deery said the same cockroach can be
entered in any number of events
for a $5 fee, if you can catch it
after the first race.

"But for the animals it is
short-term success and glory as most don't last
to return the next year," said
Deery.

"They meet a varied end. One year
the steward threw a handful into the
crowd, while another year one better
was talked into eating one, all in
the name of charity." ($1=A$1.28)

Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks) JLS

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Mark Harriss
 
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Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks) JLS



Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss

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John Stewart
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Mark Harriss wrote:


Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks) JLS


Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss


There are Cockroaches in this part of the world too. Luckily I live
just a bit north of their range. Seems the Winter here is just enough
to keep them out. Last three weeks has been in the range -15 to -25C.
Supposed to get warm today at -7C, but snow like hell.
(Probably doesn't snow much in Hell. The fuel cost would be outtta site).

BTW, what is a Canetoad. Check one below.....

A- Marsupial
B- Monotreme
C- Amphibian

There is no prize!!!!!!! Cheers, John Stewart


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Patrick Turner
 
Posts: n/a
Default



John Stewart wrote:

Mark Harriss wrote:


Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks) JLS


Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss


There are Cockroaches in this part of the world too. Luckily I live
just a bit north of their range. Seems the Winter here is just enough
to keep them out. Last three weeks has been in the range -15 to -25C.
Supposed to get warm today at -7C, but snow like hell.
(Probably doesn't snow much in Hell. The fuel cost would be outtta site).

BTW, what is a Canetoad. Check one below.....

A- Marsupial
B- Monotreme
C- Amphibian

There is no prize!!!!!!! Cheers, John Stewart


Citizen Kane Tode is a pestulential type of guy who originated
in Sth america but who was sent over to Oz to control insects who have a sweet
tooth in the sugar crops.
His decendants number millions, and the only good Kane Tode is a dead one.

Actually, political rumour has it that the yanks secretly let Kane Tode
loose from a submarine parked off beach near Cairns,
in order to ruin the tourist attractions of Oz and make Oz a less desirable
tourist destination.
The Todes have had an appalling effect on the wildlife, and dead birds, roos
and lizards pong the landscape, because Kane Toad is extremely poisenous to
eat.
Todes or no Todes, there has been little effect on the World Trade talks going
on right now, with US
sugar farmers ill prepared to accept Oz sugar imports to the US.
The Todes might do some small good to rid Oz sugar farms of pests,
and that's where the guys in the sub really pharked up, they
were supposed to make Oz sugar less competively produced
than the US sugar....subsidies notwithstanding.

Patrick Turner.

  #5   Report Post  
Mark Harriss
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Apparently they are used for Chinese medicine.
I'm eyeing off the 8 in my laundry and wondering what they'll
sell for freeze dried on Ebay.


  #6   Report Post  
Rich Andrews
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Patrick Turner wrote in news:40150693.BB32D6D3
@turneraudio.com.au:



John Stewart wrote:

Mark Harriss wrote:


Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks)

JLS

Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss


There are Cockroaches in this part of the world too. Luckily I live
just a bit north of their range. Seems the Winter here is just enough
to keep them out. Last three weeks has been in the range -15 to -25C.
Supposed to get warm today at -7C, but snow like hell.
(Probably doesn't snow much in Hell. The fuel cost would be outtta

site).

BTW, what is a Canetoad. Check one below.....

A- Marsupial
B- Monotreme
C- Amphibian

There is no prize!!!!!!! Cheers, John Stewart


Citizen Kane Tode is a pestulential type of guy who originated
in Sth america but who was sent over to Oz to control insects who have a

sweet
tooth in the sugar crops.
His decendants number millions, and the only good Kane Tode is a dead

one.

Actually, political rumour has it that the yanks secretly let Kane Tode
loose from a submarine parked off beach near Cairns,
in order to ruin the tourist attractions of Oz and make Oz a less

desirable
tourist destination.
The Todes have had an appalling effect on the wildlife, and dead birds,

roos
and lizards pong the landscape, because Kane Toad is extremely poisenous

to
eat.
Todes or no Todes, there has been little effect on the World Trade talks

going
on right now, with US
sugar farmers ill prepared to accept Oz sugar imports to the US.
The Todes might do some small good to rid Oz sugar farms of pests,
and that's where the guys in the sub really pharked up, they
were supposed to make Oz sugar less competively produced
than the US sugar....subsidies notwithstanding.

Patrick Turner.


Patrick,

Us Yanks like the Brits just slightly more than you do. We found their
actions insufferable, so we kicked them off this continent. One could
argure that accompilishing that was a trivial task as one little brown
dude dressed in a bit 'o twisty rag named Gandi did it after we did.
Anyway, we would have never brought those nasty critters to your shores.
I would look across the puddle for clues. (:)



r


--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.


  #8   Report Post  
Mark Harriss
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Jon Yaeger wrote:

I used to live in Hawaii, where roaches were the state pet. They grew to
enormous size, and were bold, too . . . .



Biggest one I ever saw was at a roadhouse in the Northern
Territory I threw part of a chicken wing on the ground and this roach
ran out and dragged it backwards under his rock. I wasn't going to lift
the rock: I heard it hiss at me.

  #9   Report Post  
Patrick Turner
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Mark Harriss wrote:

Apparently they are used for Chinese medicine.
I'm eyeing off the 8 in my laundry and wondering what they'll
sell for freeze dried on Ebay.


One enterprising gentleman living in Darwin
uses a HV zapper trap for 'roaches, which weigh
several kilograms each, and the collection is then dried,
ground up, and disolved, and it makes a splendid transformer
doping substance, like shellac.
But it sounds really awful, and is only good for
dark metal or heavy metal rock band amplifiers.

Patrick Turner.


  #10   Report Post  
Patrick Turner
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Rich Andrews wrote:

Patrick Turner wrote in news:40150693.BB32D6D3
@turneraudio.com.au:



John Stewart wrote:

Mark Harriss wrote:


Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks)

JLS

Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss

There are Cockroaches in this part of the world too. Luckily I live
just a bit north of their range. Seems the Winter here is just enough
to keep them out. Last three weeks has been in the range -15 to -25C.
Supposed to get warm today at -7C, but snow like hell.
(Probably doesn't snow much in Hell. The fuel cost would be outtta

site).

BTW, what is a Canetoad. Check one below.....

A- Marsupial
B- Monotreme
C- Amphibian

There is no prize!!!!!!! Cheers, John Stewart


Citizen Kane Tode is a pestulential type of guy who originated
in Sth america but who was sent over to Oz to control insects who have a

sweet
tooth in the sugar crops.
His decendants number millions, and the only good Kane Tode is a dead

one.

Actually, political rumour has it that the yanks secretly let Kane Tode
loose from a submarine parked off beach near Cairns,
in order to ruin the tourist attractions of Oz and make Oz a less

desirable
tourist destination.
The Todes have had an appalling effect on the wildlife, and dead birds,

roos
and lizards pong the landscape, because Kane Toad is extremely poisenous

to
eat.
Todes or no Todes, there has been little effect on the World Trade talks

going
on right now, with US
sugar farmers ill prepared to accept Oz sugar imports to the US.
The Todes might do some small good to rid Oz sugar farms of pests,
and that's where the guys in the sub really pharked up, they
were supposed to make Oz sugar less competively produced
than the US sugar....subsidies notwithstanding.

Patrick Turner.


Patrick,

Us Yanks like the Brits just slightly more than you do. We found their
actions insufferable, so we kicked them off this continent.


We saved ourselves the cost of few civil wars, and still we can't get the
national accounts to balance.
The damage to out ego is that we have a delightful little ol
lady who doesn't baulk at dissmissing incompetent governments
from time to time.
All that money saved by not warring with Mother England
has been used to make sugar production cheaper, eradicate roaches,
and reverse the ravages of the kane todes, mainly by furious driving
at night with wide tyres fitted to the 4wd country vehicles.

One could

argure that accompilishing that was a trivial task as one little brown
dude dressed in a bit 'o twisty rag named Gandi did it after we did.


Yes, good ol Ghandi. Sterling chappy.
But the Indians are not getting very far in trade talks with the US,
or in the race against cockroaches.


Anyway, we would have never brought those nasty critters to your shores.
I would look across the puddle for clues. (:)


Maybe it was a German sub that brought them,
But I distinctly saw some suspicicious behaviour one night
while fishing on a Cairns beach in 1943.

Maybe it was the chinese. When faced with some pest,
each person is ordered to catch each one around them,
and since there is one person per sq metre in china,
the roaches and frogs don't stand a chance.
I reckon the roaches could have arrived on the same sub.

I think they have special golf contests in NT, where
they see how far and accurately someone can hit a kane tode's head.
Definately a game for the brave, and most heat resistant folks,
and neck to toe plastic suits are required.

We have now got some african ant colonies on some island up north
and they have simply devastated the tourist appeal.
These critters aren't as deadly as the bull ants and jumping jack ants
of Oz, but the afro ant colonies make up for it with vastly higher
populations.
Just how 20 million ants can act as one deadly seething hungry beast must
be evidence of the effectiveness of a universal dogma.
In 100 years, I doubt much of our native fauna will be surviving....
But there will be plenty of gum trees growing overseas,
maybe because all of ours will have been felled for wood chips and houses,
which make the cockroaches feel at home.

Patrick Turner.





  #11   Report Post  
Rich Andrews
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Patrick Turner wrote in
:



Rich Andrews wrote:

Patrick Turner wrote in

news:40150693.BB32D6D3
@turneraudio.com.au:



John Stewart wrote:

Mark Harriss wrote:


Phil A won!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the race, not the OZ Bucks)

JLS

Funny you should mention this, but Phil's state of
New South Wales and my neighbouring northerly state of
Queensland have a fierce 3 match round of football known
as "State of Origin" each year. The two sides are known as
"Cockroaches" and "Canetoads" respectively.

Patrick Turner's territory, the ACT, is surrounded by Phil's
eg: surrounded by cockroaches on all sides.

Regards
Mark Harriss

There are Cockroaches in this part of the world too. Luckily I live
just a bit north of their range. Seems the Winter here is just

enough
to keep them out. Last three weeks has been in the range -15 to -

25C.
Supposed to get warm today at -7C, but snow like hell.
(Probably doesn't snow much in Hell. The fuel cost would be outtta

site).

BTW, what is a Canetoad. Check one below.....

A- Marsupial
B- Monotreme
C- Amphibian

There is no prize!!!!!!! Cheers, John Stewart

Citizen Kane Tode is a pestulential type of guy who originated
in Sth america but who was sent over to Oz to control insects who

have a
sweet
tooth in the sugar crops.
His decendants number millions, and the only good Kane Tode is a

dead
one.

Actually, political rumour has it that the yanks secretly let Kane

Tode
loose from a submarine parked off beach near Cairns,
in order to ruin the tourist attractions of Oz and make Oz a less

desirable
tourist destination.
The Todes have had an appalling effect on the wildlife, and dead

birds,
roos
and lizards pong the landscape, because Kane Toad is extremely

poisenous
to
eat.
Todes or no Todes, there has been little effect on the World Trade

talks
going
on right now, with US
sugar farmers ill prepared to accept Oz sugar imports to the US.
The Todes might do some small good to rid Oz sugar farms of pests,
and that's where the guys in the sub really pharked up, they
were supposed to make Oz sugar less competively produced
than the US sugar....subsidies notwithstanding.

Patrick Turner.


Patrick,

Us Yanks like the Brits just slightly more than you do. We found their
actions insufferable, so we kicked them off this continent.


We saved ourselves the cost of few civil wars, and still we can't get

the
national accounts to balance.
The damage to out ego is that we have a delightful little ol
lady who doesn't baulk at dissmissing incompetent governments
from time to time.
All that money saved by not warring with Mother England
has been used to make sugar production cheaper, eradicate roaches,
and reverse the ravages of the kane todes, mainly by furious driving
at night with wide tyres fitted to the 4wd country vehicles.

One could

argure that accompilishing that was a trivial task as one little brown
dude dressed in a bit 'o twisty rag named Gandi did it after we did.


Yes, good ol Ghandi. Sterling chappy.
But the Indians are not getting very far in trade talks with the US,
or in the race against cockroaches.


Anyway, we would have never brought those nasty critters to your

shores.
I would look across the puddle for clues. (:)


Maybe it was a German sub that brought them,
But I distinctly saw some suspicicious behaviour one night
while fishing on a Cairns beach in 1943.

Maybe it was the chinese. When faced with some pest,
each person is ordered to catch each one around them,
and since there is one person per sq metre in china,
the roaches and frogs don't stand a chance.
I reckon the roaches could have arrived on the same sub.

I think they have special golf contests in NT, where
they see how far and accurately someone can hit a kane tode's head.
Definately a game for the brave, and most heat resistant folks,
and neck to toe plastic suits are required.

We have now got some african ant colonies on some island up north
and they have simply devastated the tourist appeal.
These critters aren't as deadly as the bull ants and jumping jack ants
of Oz, but the afro ant colonies make up for it with vastly higher
populations.
Just how 20 million ants can act as one deadly seething hungry beast

must
be evidence of the effectiveness of a universal dogma.
In 100 years, I doubt much of our native fauna will be surviving....
But there will be plenty of gum trees growing overseas,
maybe because all of ours will have been felled for wood chips and

houses,
which make the cockroaches feel at home.

Patrick Turner.





Patrick,

You people really hate Cane Toads. I would too if my neck of the woods
was overrun with them. The Cane Toad site says to dispatch them "with a
sharp blow to the skull with a heavy blunt object." www.frogwatch.org.au
I'll bet that PETA would not complain about the method of killing them if
they were overrun with them.

There there are the mouse plagues and the flies. Flies so thick you have
to talk and breathe through your teeth. Good thing all those pests don't
occur in the same location at once. I think I will go kill some fireants.

r


--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.


  #12   Report Post  
Patrick Turner
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Patrick,

You people really hate Cane Toads. I would too if my neck of the woods
was overrun with them. The Cane Toad site says to dispatch them "with a
sharp blow to the skull with a heavy blunt object." www.frogwatch.org.au
I'll bet that PETA would not complain about the method of killing them if
they were overrun with them.

There there are the mouse plagues and the flies. Flies so thick you have
to talk and breathe through your teeth.


Anyone living in the outback is usually pretty cranky,
and has teeth clenched most days, when yet again
they find out a tractor has broken, and 1928 tubes for the radio
have just gone up in price again,
or the fence which cost so much sweat 20 years ago
has just been lowered by termites or bushfire.
The drouts and floods, and hail storms also contribute to a slow way
of talking through a nearly closed mouth....

Good thing all those pests don't
occur in the same location at once.


In the bush, there's always something.....

I think I will go kill some fireants.


Save em up for putting down the trousers of the folks you don't like....

IN Oz the flies are so bad sometimes, the gallahs and crows fly backwards,
to avoid being hit in the eyes.

Patrick Turner.



r

--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.


  #13   Report Post  
Mark Harriss
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Rich Andrews wrote:

Good thing all those pests don't
occur in the same location at once. I think I will go kill some fireants.

r



Hi Rich, well we have some recent arrivals here in Queensland
too: crazy ants and fire ants, papaya fruit flies and some kind of
Californian grape eating bug. But.......we saved heaps of money with
quarantine and customs cutbacks!!.


Regards
Mark
  #14   Report Post  
Patrick Turner
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Mark Harriss wrote:

Rich Andrews wrote:

Good thing all those pests don't
occur in the same location at once. I think I will go kill some fireants.

r


Hi Rich, well we have some recent arrivals here in Queensland
too: crazy ants and fire ants, papaya fruit flies and some kind of
Californian grape eating bug. But.......we saved heaps of money with
quarantine and customs cutbacks!!.


Free Trade Agreements depend on all the farmers of the world
having to have the same full range of pests......
It makes for a level playing field.

Patrick Turner.



Regards
Mark


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