Olivia Newton-John
Who would have thought that the rerelease of Grease would have moviegoers dressing in poodle skirts, singing and dancing in the aisles and reciting all the lines? Take that, Luke Skywalker! Tea Tree Oil
Harvested at Australia's Thursday Plantation and bottled as a body wash ($8.50) by the Body Shop, tea tree oil has anti-bacterial properties that make it ideal for removing chlorine from the epidermis. Its foresty smell will freshen you right up after a session of beach volleyball, tennis or yoga. Tuckonie and Ouraka
Portlanders are lucky to have five months to view T and O, a pair of koalas now at the Washington Park Zoo; the marsupials are in short supply. Finicky koalas feed exclusively on fresh eucalyptus leaves--and neither beast nor tree is protected in Australia, which explains the drastic reduction in the number of koalas living in the wild (there are fewer than 80,000). 1988
Queensland author Andrew McGahan won raves from just about everyone outside the United States for his Vogel Award-winning novel, 1988. St. Martin's Press published the first American edition this month.The book follows two arty Australian losers who take a job as weathermen on the remote Cobourg Peninsula. The New York Times calls it "a fiendish and eventful psychological novel." Besides that, it's laugh-out-loud funny. DIY Australia
If you like your koalas in the wild, your eucalyptus on the tree, and a few pints of Fosters from the tap with your novel (or Olivia), head down under yourself. Orbit Travel (239-4050) found us round-trip tickets from Portland to Sydney on United Airlines for the reasonable fare of $675. |
