Howe About This

The other day, job duties took me back to the building where I was assigned from 2001 - 2009, and what a pleasure it was to see the old work family again.  Now, if you read this, whatever it is, with any regularity, you know that I love people and love talking to them and hearing about their lives.  There are many people who are content to live on an island, "entire of itself," as old John Donne used to say, but they are surely missing out on a lot.  It's better to be around people, and best yet to be around people one loves.
 
But - if you really need to get away - you might want to check out this far-flung spot known as Lord Howe Island. It's down there down under, between Australia and New Zealand, and it has six miles of roads, one police officer, no cell phones and no McDonald's, that's for sure.  The 360 people who live there - and the population stays the same because every time a woman gives birth, a man leaves the island - limit tourists to 400 at any given time.  The island was discovered by British Naval Lt. Lidgbird Ball, commander of a supply vessel (HMS Supply) that was on its way to a penal colony in Australia that day in 1788.  




That last was a sentence that should never be read in any middle school classroom, in case you were thinking of doing that.

Anyway, legend has it that old Lt Ball saw the island through his spyglass and gave  this subtropical paradise its name when he said, "Look at that pretty island! Lord, how I'd love to live there!"

The picture at left shows old Lidgbird eying up his future retirement colony.    Gee whiz, no TV.  That means no Regis, no Brian Williams, no 70's Show, no Weather Channel, no Keith Olbermann.  No thanks!