Pen-names are often used by persons who are shy to let the community at large know that they have a bent for literary expression. Some deliberately disguise who they are because they intend to take the mickey out of people in high places or give some organisation a verbal lashing . In North Queensland , one of these latter fiends went under the pen- name of Bud Sigatoka . Sigatoka is a fungal disease in bananas which does nasty things to the male buds in plants, causing them to break out in black spots. As no mother would name her child Black Spot , this moniker was obviously a cunning nom de plume. Bud Sigatoka took swipes at various individuals and organisations, particularly the Townsville City Council when it was dominated by the ALP.
This prompted threats of legal action , the seizure of a computer and muttered threats to insert the very rough end of a pineapple where the beautiful Queensland sun does not shine . The search for this irksome person became so hot that Bud suddenly announced his much read dispatches would no longer appear in cyberspace . BANANA TRIVIA : Bet you did not know that bananas are slightly radioactive which is due to the fact that they are high in potassium and contain the isotope,Potassium-40. Wikipedia states that proponents of nuclear power sometimes refer to the banana equivalent dose of radiation to support their argument.
