June 25, 2003
MUST ... HAVE ... BEER ...
Five days in the desert will make a man thirsty:
Posted by Tim Blair at June 25, 2003 07:43 PMHe sparked a major search after going missing in the outback for five days, but the first thing 31-year-old Benjamin O'Connor wanted when he walked up to the roadhouse bar was not food, but a beer.
"He just walked in and looked like he was in a pretty rough way," publican Shane Able said today.
"He didn't bother to order anything to eat, he just asked for a VB, threw it back pretty quick and then started asking people at the bar if he could get a lift to Alice Springs.”
Reminds me of a story a few years back. There was a commercial airline that crashed somewhere in Iowa. There was film footage of it - you may remember it. The plane basically did a cartwheel, broke up and came to rest (mostly) in an adjacent cornfield. Many people died. All reports seemed to indicate that it was the only the miraculous skill of the pilots that allowed them to get the plane anywhere near an airport, much less that anyone was able to survive. Anyway, after hours of combing the cornfield for survivors, some one reported seeing somebody walking toward the terminal. Rescuers went inside and found a passenger/survivor sitting at the airport bar, head in hands, having a stiff Scotch.
Posted by: Matt at June 26, 2003 at 07:11 AMWasn't there a song a few years back...by Slim Newton or Slim Dusty...
"It's so lonesome away
From your kindred and all,
'Round the campfire at night
Where the wild Dingos call.
But there's nothin' so lonesome
Morbid or drear,
Than to stand in the bar
Of a pub with no beer.
Oh, the swag he comes in,
Smothered in dust and flies
Pulls a wad from his coat,
And wipes the sweat from his eyes.
But the grin on his face
Quickly turns to a sneer
When the publican tells him
'The pub's got no beer' "
Or something like that. There's more too.
Good song.
Posted by: Stephen at June 26, 2003 at 07:55 AMThe first sentence is plain silliness. The guy has been in the desert for so many days. Now,perhaps I'm not clued in to the contrary, but Isuspect after five days or so wandering around under blazing sun, food isn't the immediate priority,though it might be the second.
And what else is there to do after quenching an almighty thirst but hitch a lift back to the old abode.
Because, d, like any good Aussie he was thinking about his next priority - a root.
Posted by: Fred at June 26, 2003 at 02:58 PM