1. When Dogbert in his Clues for the Clueless discussed how close you may stand to people in different countries, he said, "In Australia, any distance is too dang close." The illustration showed a voice over a hill calling, "Hey, can we talk?" as a grumpy Aussie speed-walked away thinking, "He must be a tourist."

To be fair, that was almost 20 years ago, so times may have changed. And Australia is big enough that you might encounter very different attitudes in different parts. My family met mostly polite people in France, but then, we were in Paris only at the airport.

2. My dad reports the same: "It's counterintuitive." But so is driving at all, when you think about it.

3. I never quite understood how roundabouts were supposed to help. There's a circle near my old house, and drivers frequently don't know how to handle it.

4. Back when video arcades were popular, I heard those were expensive in Australia too. Maybe it's something about junky non-necessities.

5. I thought Europe's lack of air conditioning was bad enough.

6. I wonder if that's where they filmed some of the movies I've seen that credit Australia.

7. Just this morning, I was thinking of the term "whippoorwill."

8. Not my thing, but at least they might counteract the cloying sweet smells.

9. I'm sure we all could. :)