Merry Christmas

I'm in Melbourne, visiting family and friends over Christmas. It is very hot and dry. The city is overhung with smoke - vast tracts of bush are on fire. Most of the news coverage about the fires is about property, property, property. But I wonder about the critters getting roasted - there must be thousands of them. Wombats in their burrows. Koalas in their treetops. This morning, eyes sore from not enough sleep (it's SO hot!), I lay on my parents' couch and asked my brother, who was sitting at the table reading The Age, "What's happening in the world". Here's what he told me:

A Japanese guy went into hibernation. He got caught on a cold mountaintop, all his organs shut down... he stayed like that for 27 days... but then he thawed out.

That copper who killed the Aboriginal man isn't going to be charged with murder. He broke the man's ribs and pulverised his liver so that it stopped working, but there's not enough evidence to charge him with murder.

Two teenaged girls killed their friend and put her in a wheelie bin.

Happy holidays.
Happy holidays.