Scarce

It's bad enough that we have to contend with snails in the mailbox when it's raining but for a moment there it looked like we'd have to contend with spiders as well! Australia Post has just scrapped plans to introduce a red-back spider stamp because the image was too realistic, and there were fears it would scare people. The "Dangerous Australians" series, due out in October, features wildlife such as the great write Shark, eastern brown snake and saltwater crocodile - which won't pose as much as a possible mailbox hazard because they're not usually as small as a spider. There are other examples, of pictures being fairly realistic. Take the ad for pen/cil/s on the Sydney Morning Herald puzzle page. It shows a full-size pencil resting on the page between the Target and the crossword. Reports suggest more than one person has tried to pick it up.