Settling

Perchance Mount Isa is the paper bag capital of Australia or even the world.

My love grows more and more for Australia with each story I read about the happenings in Oz. The latest comes from the Times Online.

John Molony, the mayor of Mount Isa in northern Queensland, suggested to the Townsville Bulletin newspaper:

“If there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa. Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face. Whether it is recollection of something previous, or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness.” He added: “Often those who are beauty-disadvantaged are unhappy with their lot. Some, in other places in Australia, need to proceed to Mount Isa, where happiness awaits. And, really, beauty is only skin deep. Isn’t there a fairy tale about an ugly duckling that evolves into a beautiful swan?”

Since my secondary plan for my trip to Oz involves the search for a wife, this story has proved beneficial in informing me of the apparent lack of lasses in Queensland. The ladies of the town, of which there are suspiciously no pictures in the story, have naturally taken to protesting this disparaging view of their Aussie sisters by the mayor. He will not back down. Clearly the town is in need of some objective judgment. Therefore, I submit my application to deem whether Mount Isa women are fuglier than other cities. This will be exhausting work, but I've been training for this all my life.

The story continues:

One 26-year-old man described the town as the “beer goggles capital of Australia” because the male population was not at all choosy when it came to the opposite sex. Paul Woodlands, 25, a builder, told the Townsville Bulletin: “There’s definitely a lack of beautiful women. Blokes are not as picky - you take what you can get.”