Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from ACM, which has journalists in every state and territory. Today's is written by ACM national agriculture writer Chris McLennan.
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Check out this picture which I took during a recent holiday to the USA.
Yes, you probably would expect to see Spiderman in New York City, but two of them?
There was a Batman, a few Disney characters, Ironman and some Sesame Street folk as well.
It's even more funny when you are nestled close with them on the subway.
They frequent Times Square in the centre of the city, supposedly one of the busiest pedestrian spots in the world - I can believe it.
Today's column is all about travelling overseas and a few traps for tourists to look out for.
These folk above are just that, a trap, and despite the costumes, fairly aggressive ones at that.
They are trying to make a buck.
Not an honest one maybe, but a buck.
Never forgetting there were supposed to be real nasties out there in the crowds. Lots of world-rated pickpockets, we were told.
These friendly-looking characters might be wait staff in the evenings being paid the regular $2 an hour which seemed to be the way in the US and relying on tips to survive. But tipping is a whole different story.
Our Times Square characters waited until a mum or dad wandered along with their kids, those kids were excited to see them and a photo was suggested.
So the character would snuggle up with the kids for a picture, and then immediately demand a cash payment once the photo was taken.
We hung around Times Square long enough to hear these demands could get pretty heated if not paid.
I'll never look at Spiderman in the same way.
There is a Rocky statue at the bottom of those famous steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
You know, the steps the Hollywood character ran up to get fit for his world title boxing match.
Yes, I know Rocky is not real, the writer and actor Sylvester Stallone was the real person, but that statue did a roaring trade.
There was a line of people waiting to stand in front of Rocky, raise their arms in mock triumph and have their picture taken.
That picture was taken by a kindly man who appeared to have taken up residence beside the statue.
He would urge the subject to have their friends or partner in the shot with them, and he would use their phone or whatever to take the shot.
After said picture was taken came the invitation for payment.
Pretty tame, you might say.
No quite the scary situation from the Liam Neeson "Taken" film where Peter kidnaps his daughter.
It is usually the last thing I tell my kids if they're heading off overseas - "keep away from strangers, especially anyone called Peter".
Yes in other parts of the world there are different things for the tourist to look out for.
Touts selling cheap watches, renting cheap motorbikes - all sorts of really dangerous stuff.
Marijuana is now legal in many US states including New York, sold through authorised retailers.
We came across some happy chaps sitting on milk crates outside one of these stores openly selling what they said was the best product available in New York.
This product of theirs was inside what appeared to be peanut butter jars, hardly government approved.
I wonder what overseas tourists tell others to look out for in Australia?
I suspect snakes and sharks but maybe it's something else?
We had a really great holiday in New York City - especially with all those costumed superheroes around to keep it safe.