> > > I forgot my own birthday this year until it was almost the end of the day. Then I thought, "Oh, hey, this might be my birthday" and figured out what the date was, and thought, "Yeah, it is. Huh."
> > >
> > > As an excuse, I was working on a ship, many miles away from the nearest calendar, plus I had been busy enough the previous week that I seldom had any clue what day or date it was.
> > >

(-: In case *everyone else* did forget, I tried to remember for you. Did you like my poem?


> Also, I had been careful not to let anybody KNOW it would be my birthday during the voyage, since I didn't want to be jumped on by five guys, held under the fire hose, tied up, tied down, wrapped from neck to ankles in five rolls of cling film until I was immobilised, and had honey and Vegemite rubbed through my hair.
> > >
> > > Brunnen-"this happened to somebody else"G
> >
> > Another quaint NZ custom?
> > Howard
>

WHATEVER the meaning of this custom is, Howard, it isn't limited to NZ. Up here in the hick sticks part of the world, I know of someone who on his last bachelor's night was held down, had bubble gum and motor oil rubbed into his hair, got locked in a small holding crate for livestock, then got loaded into the back of a pickup truck with cow manure up to his knees. He was paraded around town inside the cage by his friends. After he was let out, I'm told they handcuffed his hands behind his back, and ran him through a cornfield while in a state of near-undress. Ouch. If you've ever walked through a cornfield, it's obvious the corn husks have terribly saw-toothed edges.

And we wonder why people might not want to get married?


> Nope. Just the sort of thing that happens when you associate with people who have a certain individual humour style.
>

Aren't they the people who are such a barrel of full of laughs, you give them one-way tickets to Trinidad and Tobago to get them (and their humour) THE HECK AWAY from you, your car, and your house, the week before you *do* get married. Throw 'em a prophylactic sop in order to preserve your sanity.


> Brunnen-"the torture of helpless innocent teddy bears was also involved"G

Wolf "Now THAT was just sheer barbarism" spirit