G'day,

I've always thought that Mark Graham's Their Brains Were Small and They Died was an unconscionable slur on dinosaurs! It sounds like a petty, misunderstanding cheap shot at a species that dominated the planet for 150 million years - coming from a bunch of overweening apes that look like not making it to a round one million (depending on just where you draw the line in the African veldt).

I've heard Faith Petric sing the song on two visits to Australia and it is a great way gently sting an audience into something like serious thought about the way we elect leaders bent on destroying the planet they think they rule. I just can't stomach the old fashioned view that the dinosaurs' demise was their fault ... that's an unacceptable anthropomorphisation of a noble species, wiped out by cosmic forces beyond their control.

On a less serious note, local (Sydney - ex-England) singer/songwriter John Warner has knocked a few great childrens' songs about dinosaurs (as well as bunyips - the local Native Australians' mythical monsters of the swamps and forests) and other toothy beasts that delight the average bloodthirsty child. I might see if he is agreeable to one or two finding their way onto Mudcat.

Regards,

Bob Bolton