Priscilla, Australia's next Paul Hogan

Every now and then, an inspiring story of high achievement in the face of adversity comes my way, such that I am compelled to stop what I am doing, and immediately write up a blog post. On this cold Canberra morning, it was the story of Priscilla, the beer swilling pig from North East Tasmania that caught my attention.

Priscilla must surely be one of Tasmania's best kept secrets. I certainly had never heard of her prior to this morning's story. Priscilla's talent is a simple one, but one that would put many an Aussie beer drinker to shame. She has been reported to possess the ability to skull a whole stubby of beer (most probably a Boag's) in no less than seven seconds! Of course, you might think this is just a matter of someone, quite cruelly, force feeding the pig - but NO - Priscilla has been trained to actually drink from the bottle herself, and I suspect also puts a lot of Aussie beer drinkers to shame with her ability to keep it from dribbling down her front.

As it turns out, a lot of international tourists have actually heard about Priscilla, and come to the small town of Pyengana, just to see her chug another coldy down. Given her obvious appeal, and the problems Australia is having with its current "where the bloody hell are you?" campaign, I think there is some potential for Priscilla's talent in Australia's tourism advertisements. I would suggest we replace the current adds with footage of Priscilla downing a Fosters before trotting away into the Aussie sun set. The extended version would see her then drop onto the ground, and roll around in her own squalor (we could potentially keep the "bloody hell" slogan if we wanted). I am no expert, but I am pretty confident that footage of a beer swilling pig from Tasmania will translate perfectly, no matter what the language.