News From the Flat Earth Society

I have a Google News Alert set up to send me a once-daily digest of triathlon-related news and information. Recent alerts have featured many race reports and triathlete profiles from Australia and New Zealand, and almost no stories from North America or Europe. I was ready to stipulate that triathlon's popularity was waxing Down Under and waning "up here."

Then a more likely explanation hit me: Down under...Southern hemisphere...Ah! It's summer there and it's winter here. Tough to hold a February triathlon in Wisconsin; those darn 'ol ice fisherman - with their shanties and their cars - keep getting in the swimmers' way. And the water is a mite...stiff.

But even as my scientific witlessness was, once again, being made painfully clear, it's also comforting to know that someone, somewhere has the sun on their back and the wind in their eyes. Meanwhile, we here in the Great Suburban Outback face another two months of cold wretchedness.

It took me a week to hit on the winter-north, summer-south explanation. So sue me. Reason #9,047 why I'm neither a scientist nor a geographer. But I am a summeraholic. And Lordy do I need a fix. Hello Qantas!