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  • News & article

    Becoming Long John Silver just for a day

    News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 19/09/2021

    » Important news. Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, on which everyone is encouraged to speak in the manner of a buccaneer, sea dog, corsair, picaroon or whatever you wish to call them. If you are desperate Captain Jack Sparrow impersonations will suffice.

  • News & article

    Can't beat a good hometown name

    Roger Crutchley, Published on 11/02/2024

    » There was a brief US news item last week concerning Groundhog Day, an annual ceremony in Pennsylvania in which a large but docile rodent emerges from its burrow and predicts the weather for the coming year. No need for professional forecasters. It is celebrated in a small Pennsylvania town with the magnificent name of Punxsutawney.

  • News & article

    Welcome to the really silly season

    Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 24/12/2023

    » It's Christmas Eve and we are well into the Jinger Ben season in Thailand (Jingle Bells to the uninitiated). But in these dodgy times one suspects there might not be too much jingling going on. Nonetheless, considering all the gloomy news of late, a couple of weeks of being a bit daft offers a welcome break. So we might as well make the most of the Jinger Ben jollity, like a lady teller at my bank who was sporting some rather cute rabbit ears.

  • News & article

    Taste of inflation from a reliable sauce

    Roger Crutchley, Published on 03/12/2023

    » I am not sure where Bangkok stands in the list of most expensive cities released by the Economist this week. Singapore and Zurich top the table but judging from recent visits to the supermarket, Bangkok must be racing up the inflation charts.

  • News & article

    Britain braces for invasion of bed bugs

    Roger Crutchley, Published on 22/10/2023

    » One English expression my wife often comes up with is "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". It sounds particularly comforting in her Thai accent, although occasionally she gets in a bit of a tangle with the three "b" words at the end which can be a bit tricky if spoken quickly.

  • News & article

    It still remains an offer you can't refuse

    News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 31/07/2022

    » Francis Ford Coppola's epic film The Godfather has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, a frightening thought as I can recall queuing up to see it at a Bangkok cinema all those years ago. It was 1972, in the days long before multiplex cinemas emerged in Bangkok, so when a big film came out there would be massive queues at the theatre showing the blockbuster.

  • News & article

    The train robbery that gripped a nation

    Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/08/2023

    » Last week on television I watched the two-part series The Great Train Robbery, an intriguing account of the audacious heist that made headlines in Britain all those years ago. It slowly dawned on me that this month is the 60th anniversary of that extraordinary robbery which took place on August 8, 1963, on the Royal Mail train from Glasgow to London. Frightening how time flies.

  • News & article

    Audience of one is better than none

    Roger Crutchley, Published on 13/08/2023

    » There was a story from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last week concerning English actress Georgie Grier whose one-woman show Sunsets attracted a grand audience of one. A tweet with pictures of a tearful Grier after the show prompted considerable sympathy and the following night she found herself performing to a near full-house which she joked felt the equivalent of "Wembley".

  • News & article

    Going bananas over the 'Day-O' song

    News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/05/2023

    » The recent death of the gifted Jamaican-American singer Harry Belafonte at the age of 96 inevitably sparked memories of when his biggest hit "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" swept the globe, including Britain.

  • News & article

    Wagglers, winkers and grasshoppers

    News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/09/2020

    » A half-hearted spring-cleaning session at home during the week came to a welcome halt when I unearthed a long-lost copy of Have Fun With Thai Proverbs collecting dust under a pile of disintegrating paperbacks. Written by Dr Duangtip Somnapan Surintatip, the book is a reminder that there is a common thread to proverbs around the world. As the title suggests, it can be fun putting long-standing expressions into a Thai context.

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