First and foremost, what is a podcast? There are many different kinds of podcasts, and for the purpose of this blog, I’ll describe the one mentioned below. A podcast is a digital audio recording of a radio interview that can be downloaded onto an iPod or mp3 player, saved indefinitely, and listened to anywhere at any time of day as [...]
Category Archives: History
School of the Air
Education is the path to living a joyful, prosperous, healthy, and peaceful life. It also played a leading role in the life of my grandfather, Meredith G. Williams Sr. He was an educator and high school principal. Today, there’s a middle school named after him in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. When I learned about Australia’s “School of the Air,” [...]
A Talk with Dr. Doolittle
Dr. Doolittle’s pushmi-pullyu was among the many stuffed animals I kept piled in a corner of my room when I was a child. This two-headed gentle and friendly creature was one of my favorites. Maybe it’s time to add it back into my collection, thanks to the Internet where anything and everything can be found. In September 2010, while [...]
Rotary in the Outback
While driving through the Northern Territory in the “Red Center” of Australia, I stayed in Alice Springs for three days. It’s a place made famous by the book A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950), but there are other reasons it’s getting noticed these days. Rotary International holds an annual event that is one-of-a-kind. Aussies have a great [...]
Australia Supports Japan after Quake
While some countries are challenged to get along with others, Australia and Japan have made great strides since World War II when Japan attacked northern Australia. The movie “Australia” (2008) starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman gives us a glimpse into the struggle between these two nations during 1942 and1943. Sixty-nine years later, a short time really, much has been healed [...]
Walkabouts and Songlines
To go walkabout means to go on a journey of self-discovery. Aborigines, young and old, head into the desert barefoot and with few possessions for days, weeks, and months on end. It is a right of passage for young men, an end of life quest for the elderly, and an ongoing connection to spirit in the years throughout one’s [...]
Bush Tucker
“Tucker” That’s an everyday word in Australia, but one that is foreign to many Americans. A mom might say to her child, “Remember to take your tucker box with you!” as her child is running out the door to go to school. The term “tucker box” can be interchanged with the term “lunch box” because the [...]
City of Light
On February 20, 1962, NASA successfully launched the first American astronaut into orbit. John Glenn made history that week when he traveled three times around the earth. During one of Glenn’s passes over Australia, the residents of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, wanted to say “Hello” to Glenn in a very big way. House lights were turned on, and enough [...]
The Origin of “Oz”
Whenever someone asks if I made up the nickname Oz for Australia, I laugh inside. It’s understandable how this assumption can be made, because Australia is still a mystery to many Americans, but as the world gets smaller and technology advances, more will become known about this faraway land. It took a lot of digging to find out which [...]
