A country town is like picking your nose: discuss

Fun times in Western Australian country town of Geraldton recently, when members of their local tourism association read an article in a West Australian newspaper publication. The article compares staying in the town to picking your nose, 'something you just don't admit to in public'. Horror! Members of tourism association suggest a boycott of WAN products; a Geraldton local and publicist goes on air for an interview and suggests inviting the offending WAN journalist to the town for a weekend - and then we'll see how she feels about it!*

Comparisons may be odious, but not everything that is odious may be a comparison. The way the ABC presenter described it - 'comparing Geraldton to picking your nose' - certainly was odd, if not odious. I'm tempted to draw up a table in order to determine once and for all if Geraldton is like picking your nose. And why? What do the experts have to say on this comparison? Perhaps this is a question the Australian tourism hasn't considered before, something that could be causing the drop in tourist numbers across the board. "Nine out of ten international experts agree: Australian country towns are like picking your nose."

I'm also tempted to write into the WAN with the following letter:

Sir/Madame,

It has come to my attention that in a recent story you compared the country town of Geraldton to nose picking, as something 'you just don't admit to in public'.

Speaking as an out and proud member of the National Proboscis Probers Association, I am absolutely shocked and horrified by this comparison. At the NPPA, we are united in the belief that picking your nose is not only of hygienic and medical benefit, but that it is a pleasurable and enjoyable activity that can be enjoyed by all members of the family. I have never been to Geraldton and bear the town no grudge - (it is, in all probability, a lovely place to live); but I have picked my nose: and I would like to say, for once and for all, that there is no shame in it. (Picking your nose, that is.) Everyone does it!

Isn't it time that these archaic and outdated stereotypes about nose picking were thrown out the window? I mean, you don't publish articles in support of creationism, do you? Well, then, why do you persist in perpetuating preposterous prejudice against personalised probosci probing? Hmmm?

As we always say in the NPPA,
"Over and snout!"

Yrs, & co. & co.,
Colonel Charles Forthwilliams-Snudge, Littlebottom, Victoria

*No links to any of these stories, sorry. They're all off line. Don't ask me how I came across them. It's a mystery of space time, man! (And something to do with who I work for).