pacman

Ahh, sarcasm eh? Sorry I missed it, I'm not used to irony from Americans... It's a wonderful story that I feel so lucky to have heard. Unfortunately I won't be repeating it at a Congressional hearing any time soon. I have no proof to confirm what I was told. The retired TWA chap was so worried about telling it to me that he insisted we don't share contact details & I was not to know his surname. But we did spend several hours together where he explained everything. We even went & had lunch after, he & his wife & me & the girl I was travelling with. There's a point, she's now a Professor at a West Coast US university & she heard it all too. I will keep an eye out for her name in case she ever decides to go public. I will be very happy to offer my support.

The word you are looking for is "de-flower" I love that expression, such a rich metaphor that sums up the act perfectly. Exactly right DC. You CAN also include (tragically) the father, the brother, the neighbour & in many cases, the village chief. The bastard children that result from the mating of a local girl & a farang has long been considered fair game for the head man who see their virginity as a reward of their *high* office. I wouldn't get quite so upset about it if they were prepared to wait till the child reached puberty however by then the prize is long gone.

re: post 596 Are you suggesting I didn't meet the retired head of TWA maintenance or are you saying his story is made up & Flight 800 really did have an exploding fuel tank? I have a heap more information he told me that I don't feel like putting on the net. I don't want to cause either of us trouble.

That's Tom the Austrian drag queen who performs as Conchita Wurst. Conchita from the slang term for pussy based on its similarity to a Conch Shell (probably the root word for cunt) & Wurst being Austrian for sausage, the universal euphemism for a cock. A clever amalgamation of contrasting terms ideally suited for her/his role. This morning on Australian TV an announcer innocently asked: "do you think that's her real name?" Gawd, obviously no brains required for that position!

As there are only a few of us who bother to engage in discussion about conspiracies, I can only assume you refer to yourself. Is this your way of "outing" yourself JaiDee? Welcome to the real world.... I love that. I remember JD or someone throwing out a challenge one time for those who support conspiracy theories to offer an example. I regret not responding, there are several theories that are incontrovertible IMO. The scandal involving the tobacco companies covering up the truth about the dangers of smoking is a classic case involving thousands of people who knew what was happening. That conspiracy lasted 30 or more years. And my all time favourite involving TWA Flight 800, supposedly blowing up en-route from NYC to Paris. The story goes that the fuel tank blew up. As I have told the story before I happened to meet the head of TWA maintenance who had retired & was holidaying in Europe. During introductions I told him I hoped they had sorted out whatever was causing the fuel tank of a jumbo jet to blow up. He told me the whole story about how the US airforce were doing live firing exercises off the coast & one of the missiles missed its target & hit their plane. Clinton was President at the time & an elaborate cover-up was swung into action. Now 18 years later we still haven't had the truth confirmed despite all the internet chat about what happened. I would call that a conspiracy & those who don't believe it are in complete denial.

I take your point RX but if forced to choose who I think is the more ethical between the hospital doctor warning about fake drugs & a local pharmacist who may or may not be tempted by the opportunity to make a some extra on the side, regardless of who he works for, I will side with the elderly European gent. Who by the way told me he can't work as a doctor in Thailand, he works part time as a liaison officer, a job he does to help occupy time in his retirement. Absolutely! There's no way in the world they would tolerate that. However when it comes to staff, even the Boots HR office can't know if they have a cheat on their payroll. I don't suggest for a second they have but I suspect they might carry out some random checks just to keep everyone honest.

That entire map is full of inconsistencies. Most of Africa is a shithole but the map shows most of it as neutral. Better than South America for a start. Ridiculous. Interesting. Thank you. I will take a look tomorrow when I have time. Cheers...

I didn't suggest ALL pharmacies are bad. But I do believe there are enough doing the wrong thing that it is worth posting a warning. The hospital I was in employed a European doctor who spoke several languages whose job it was to inform tourist patients about their procedure & the dangers they faced in Pattaya. And the one he stressed most clearly was that the pharmacies were not to be trusted. I remember him saying I would be back in care if I took follow up medicine bought from most outlets. I only have his word to go on but he was most insistent. And I also agree that it would be surprising if Boots or Watsons sold counterfeit drugs but if those companies employed local pharmacists who saw a chance to make a little profit on the side, I would not be entrusting my life on the belief that they are men of conscience who would never do such a thing. For other requirements they are the least worst option. You on the other hand are free to buy from wherever you wish. My advice was aimed at any BM who may find themselves ill sometime in the future while on holiday. If they think they can judge a pharmacy based on its size, location & cleanliness, they need to think again. This is not idle forum chat about who makes the best cocktail or serves the coldest beer.

Be very careful when buying antibiotics & other medicine in Thailand & most other places in Asia. Too many pharmacies sell fake drugs. When I was treated for pneumonia in the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital I was advised to only get my medicine from them. Of the 200 or so pharmacies in Pattaya, only a few sell genuine product, the rest sell cheap imported fake drugs. China & India are the main offenders, they copy the pills, the packaging, everything except for the active ingredients. This explains why we read that Viagra bought in Asia doesn't work. And the number of Chinese in China who died from not receiving correct medicine in the last year that statistics are available for was almost a million people. These fake drugs have started appearing in UK pharmacies in recent years. Arrests have taken place but with the money involved we haven't seen the last of them.

We've crossed paths on many a thread, glad to have you here. I might need back up the next time I want to support a conspiracy theory, there's a couple of BMs here who don't believe them. Imagine that!

Yes, quite right, it isn't just GGs who have thin legs. Though not many LBs have those amorphic, shapeless legs. I still maintain she's a lady, look at how she's standing in the second picture with her hips forward & her shoulders back. Her arms fall into that rest position across her hips that GGs do. Boys don't stand like that, their hip bones don't stick out enough.

Thanks for that clue, I do recall a boxer by the name of Apollo. He never fought a real fight, he was in one of the Rocky films. I can't remember his last name.

Floyd Mayweather?

Lady. Look at her legs, too spindly for a ladyboy. IMO.

Aint that the truth!

Thanks BB but there's more chance I will be on that one way trip to Mars than standing around looking at male genitalia. Mission declined boss, let me know when you have something more acceptable.

Europe may have no choice but to have their gas cut off. I think Putin's behaviour is the bigger problem no matter how you cut & dice it. But I think you have touched on the solution to the problem at the same time. i.e. Europe can't live without the gas, Putin can't live without the income. They both have sound reasons to keep the status quo. And it is for that matter they may decide that Ukraine is expendable. The question no one can answer, would that be enough to placate Vladimir? If no then we are at war.

Actual Thai males? I think that also describes katoeys. They still aren't female despite wanting to be. As for your thought bubble, it would be impractical to ever prove it one way or the other. If one was to be exact it would require every member in the kingdom to be measured. And you can imagine how popular that would be.

Cookie?

Now for a really obscure movie - Wadjda. I completely resisted any thought of going to see the first film out of Saudi Arabia made by a Saudi female no less. The story line is so lame, it's about a 10yo girl who yearns to own a bicycle. Her only chance is to enter a Koran memory contest. I would equate that with sticking pins in my eyes but a couple of positive reviews slowly started to bring me around. I went & saw it & loved it. Please note I am not giving a blanket recommendation, I think anyone who finds slow movies boring will find this unbearable. But as an insight into Saudi Arabia & the way their repressive religion impacts on life, this says more than 100 newspaper articles. What I found amusing is at the start of the film there is a list of Arab corporations who helped fund the film. (I read the major funding came from a German group). Anyway, these Arab money men must have thought they were doing something positive for the image of the Middle East & of the lot of women & girls in Saudi Arabia. The film hasn't been blocked anywhere as far as I know but what these money men have either missed or don't know is that the film is a terrible indictment on the life endured by women & girls. School life for a 10yo girl is pitiful. Their lives are wasted in the pointless reading of the Koran over & over & the quite ridiculous rules they have to obey. One plump thing is called out for having married on their day off. It's just incredible, the other girls are all tittering about whether he'e handsome & how old he is. He turns out to be 20 but there's not a word of protest, they just sit there like it's normal. And Wadjda's mother is torn between spending all her money on a "sexy" dress in order to keep her husband from marrying another wife. Husband doesn't want another wife, his mother is demanding it because the first wife hasn't given him a son. And husband can't afford to keep two wives so one of them has to take a back step. At least the first wife made a nice meal for her replacement, not that she was allowed to share it with them. You couldn't make this stuff up! It is barbarism dressed up to look normal. It wasn't the plot that kept my interest, it was this insight that I had only surmised but never had confirmed about life in Saudi. I was expecting the film to be a white wash, that life would be made to look wonderful. I think the authorities who approved this film for general release probably do think it's fair. But the film takes an almighty strike at the sad quality of life for those stuck in that shithole & the ridiculous religion that demands it. And all in a movie about a girl wanting a bicycle. Who could imagine such a banal subject could be so subversive? Obviously not those Arab organisations who put money towards it.

I liked John McCain's description of Russia as "a gas station being run by the mafia". More than half of Russia's gas exports are piped through the Ukraine & Putin needs to take back the country to safeguard against the threat of Ukrainian nationalists from bombing the pipeline. These latest events in Odessa have taken the world closer to war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. The Ukraine army are attacking the rebels who are Russian in everything but name. They are armed & funded by Russia & if they get badly beaten, who knows what's coming next? With Russia also supplying all the weapons to Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Putin is the world's number one warmonger. If the west fails to act he will only get worse. Comparisons to Hitler are very apt. Sanctions imposed by the west are making Putin very angry. Does Obama have the will to take him on? I worry the answer is no. Though I also think an irrational Putin will do something that will leave Obama no choice. Wow, what a fun day I'm having here...

The intensive search is being discontinued. After combing the sea bottom with remote controlled submarines there's nothing there. A mining company claims to have found wreckage in the Bay of Bengal. Before their claim can be verified there are counter claims that they must be wrong. I have no idea what they have found but is it not odd that efforts to discredit this claim are so strong so quickly after their announcement? And yes, I do believe the pilot's intention was never just to fly the plane off into the ocean until it ran out of fuel. Diego Garcia as a destination is making more & more sense. In fact it is the only place a Muslim terrorist could do any harm to the *enemy*. And Obama's trip to Malaysia? Does anyone know if that was announced a long time ago or was it a sudden inclusion to his itinerary? I find it a strange coincidence that the US President deemed it necessary to drop in on Kuala Lumpur so soon after this tragedy. Could it have been one of those conversations where the President says we know you know what happened but if you don't mention it we'll make some generous accommodation for Malaysia. I will wait for some big announcement which will indicate Malaysia has been placated.

Here you go Sam.

Speaking of whom, where is he these days?

Good heavens! Don't tell me that the most westerly end of the canal is in the Caribbean. That means the answer to your question must be the Pacific. Who'd a thunk it?