There are a few ways to spot an Australian in a crowd.
One is to look for the cheeky type terrorising the locals at the bar with tales of drop bears or some such lark. My dad, for instance, who spent a few misguided years in the military as a younger man, will gleefully regale anyone who will listen with the time he sold an unwitting American recruit a genuine Kangaroo tail feather one afternoon on exercise. (It only looked like a magpie feather, the young patriot was assured before he happily parted with his money and made off with the rare find. Bless.)
Another is to listen for the signature twang of the accent in a crowded airport. I remember, a few years back, flying into Singapore after 12 months in the west of France, hearing the Aussie parlance cutting through the chatter as if it came from a megaphone - "What gate are we, mate?". It was like getting lovingly smacked in the back of the head by a gum leaf wrapped loosely around a large golden double-plugger thong, and from that point I knew I was home.
But, perhaps the most reliable way to sort the larrikins from the tourists in just about any corner of the world, it to whack a coin in the jukebox and blast Tina Turner's 1973 classic Nutbush City Limits.
The Nutbush - that dance that we all seem to know, but we also seem to be collectively a bit hazy on exactly how we know it - has become engrained in the Australian culture in a way that it just hasn't anywhere else in the world. Question is: how?
Tina Turner, who sadly died this week at the age of 83, certainly had a rare link with Australia.
MEMORIAL: How Tina Turner 'soundtracked' the lives of Australians
She became the unlikely face of rugby league in late '80s and early '90s when then NSWRL boss John Quayle, who had an in with Tina's Australian manager in the mid-80s, managed to get the Queen of Rock n Roll on our fair shores to film an iconic promo for the sport in 1990.
She performed power ballad The Best at the 1993 grand final and cemented her place in the collective Aussie heart, but even then, the Nutbush was already a staple.
Tennessee man Jake Fly - who lives just outside the church house and gin house of Nutbush - appeared on the national broadcaster this week convinced that the dance made it into the school curriculum at some point in the '70s or '80s as a mix of school disco fodder and P.E.
That seems to stack up; ask anyone in between the side-steps and the jump where they learnt the groove and chances are they'll say they picked it up at school. But a bit of internet sleuthing brings up an even earlier origin for the steps at least.
In 1964, French film director Jean-Luc Godard's flick Bande a Part featured a dance number called the Madison, which included line-dance style side steps, a couple of stomps, a clap and a twist.
The Madison was apparently choreographed earlier, in 1958, to match the calls of DeeJay Eddie Morrison on The Madison Time track by Ray Bryant - a jazzy tune interspersed with some Electric Slide-style instruction from Morrison.
Add on a few decades and the Nutbush has arguably become our national jig - so much so that setting the world record for the biggest Nutbush has become the highlight of the annual Birdsville Big Red Bash when thousands line up to kick up the dust.
The three-day event in the Queensland outback has held and smashed the record (which currently stands at 4084 ahead of the next Bash in July) and has collectively raised more than half a million dollars for the Royal Flying Doctors since 2016.
The more you know ...
DID ALBO 'GHOST' A JOURNO?
PM Anthony Albanese has landed himself in a minor tiff with radio's Erin Molan after apparently 'ghosting' the late senator's daughter via text and refusing an appearance on hers and Hughesy's breakfast show.
So miffed was Molan, she penned an op-ed in March for one of the Sydney rags before the PM brushed it off on air Thursday.
Oh, the drama!
DON'T MISS: NEWCASTLE COMEDY FESTIVAL GALA
A month of comedy in Newcastle kicks off this weekend with the Newcastle Comedy Festival Gala on Saturday night, featuring Tommy Little, Nick Cody and local Timberlina as the big names in a string of high-profile appearances at Civic Theatre.
Tickets are available online, via the Civic Theatre website.
HAVE YOU HEARD?
A British couple have had a win over their insurance company 10 months after a herd of escaped buffaloes gatecrashed their way into the backyard and invaded their pool.
The damage bill ran to $31,000, the couple said, as they glanced out the kitchen window only to see eight buffaloes in the pool.
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