In their heydays, the Luna Parks
at Melbourne and Sydney each touted two undulating squeal-generating attractions
labelled ‘Scenic Railway’ and ‘Big Dipper’. In
the opinion of users, the Sydney ‘Scenic Railway’ offered a degree
of excitement equivalent to Melbourne’s puny ‘Big Dipper’.
The North American _expression_ is ‘roller-coaster’, which has become
a generic term, widely used as a metaphor. It was not in common use in
Australia in the Luna Park days.
From: Philip Veerman
[
Sent: Thursday, 12 February 2009 11:50 PM
To: 'Rod's Gardening'
Cc:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Eagle display
What you describe appears to be quite typical of WtE display
flight. Especially with a second bird around to watch. More so if the lower
bird was doing those dives and then rising again and repeating it like a free
form something ride- sorry forgotten what it is called, undulating joy ride on
little carriage, like at Luna park.
-----Original
Message-----
From: Rod's Gardening [
Sent: Thursday, 12 February 2009 6:49 PM
To: Steve Holliday;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Pied Cormorants
There
were at least two P C on the Kingston side, and possibly three, last Sunday
when I paddled up Jerrabomberra Ck. Also the first I've seen for a while.
On
another note I saw two Wedgies circling above the green re-cycling site at
Mugga Lane yesterday. While one rode the thermals higher and higher, the
other was being playful - gaining a bit of height then hunching its shoulders
and diving vertically at speed like I have seen a Peregrine Falcon do.
Why? Just 'cause it can I suppose, and 'cause it's fun!
