Circle Flies

[Chris Lawrence]

A stockman from North Queensland attends a social function

where Prime Minister Julia is speechifying.

Clearly the stockman was not paying much attention,

yackking with those closest and even quite far away.

Julia endeavoured to attract his interest with slower single syllable words.

As she was doing that, she kept swatting at

some flies that were buzzing around her head.

The stockman says, "Yer havin' some problem with them circle flies?"

Julia stopped talking and said, "Well, yes, if that's what they're called,

but I've never heard of circle flies."

"Well ma'am," the stockman replies, "Circle flies hang around

these parts a lot. They're called circle flies because they're almost

always found circling around the back end of a horse."

"Oh," Julia replies and resumes rambling.

But, a moment later she stops and bluntly asks,

"Are you calling me a horse's arse?"

"No, ma'am," the stockman replies,

"I have too much respect for the citizens of this country

to call their Prime Minister a horse's arse."

"Thank you for that respectful explanation," Julia responds

and resumes rambling once more.

And the stockman adds slowly ...

"Hard to fool them flies, though."