Australian generosity is, if anything, underrated.

On the car ferry over to North Stradbroke Island, I noticed a well-equipped Land Cruiser in front of us, with the keys to its cargo rack still in place. Justine hopped out and alerted them. The fellow came back a few minutes after fixing it, and we had a conversation about places and things. He asked if we drank wine. We said yes. He said "Right, I'll get a bottle," and was gone before we could protest. Nice guy.

Australian paranoia is definitely underrated.

We are averaging one "So, how is America after 9/11?" per 10 hours here. That's a bit much I think.

Far more .. interesting .. is the parade of folks who have .. interesting .. ideas about America and its role in the world. I don't mean the usual (and deserved) approbations for our foreign folly, er policy. I mean outright out-there-ness.

Our first day had a fellow who wanted to know what average Americans though about HAMP. You know, the High Altitude Microwave Project. The one that heats up the stratosphere and can use weather as a weapon against our (America's) enemies?

I didn't have an opinion.

Or how about the (admittedly more pedestrian) faked moon landing? Lots of talk here. I gathered there was a TV show recently about it. If our experience here was any indication, it was popular fare down under.