DON'T mention the war said Basil Fawlty when confronted with a table full of German tourists in his hotel dining room.
Now it's don't mention the drought in case you upset farmers struggling to cope with the lowest rainfall in a century.
The Federal Government's drought review committee recommends in a report the only "d" word that should be used is "dryness."
"Words like 'drought' have negative connotations for farm families," the report said.
Derr. When you are dealing every day with withered crops and empty haysheds a new name isn't going to help.
But read on and the real reason becomes apparent.
"There needs to be a new national approach to living with dryness, as we prefer to call it, rather than dealing with drought."
Oh that's it. Drought implies natural disaster when they want us to think it is just a normal part of life. But dryness? It sounds like an inconvenient skin condition which can be alleviated with a bit of moisturising cream.
