Showing 1 - 10 of 14
A good time to hail Caesar Salad
Roger Crutchley, Published on 15/03/2026
» For anyone planning on doing something important today and who might be just a little superstitious, it may be a good idea to stay at home and play with the dog. It is the 15th day of the month, perhaps better known in Roman times as the "Ides of March" which marks the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
Good time to celebrate verbal gaffes
Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/10/2025
» Tomorrow happens to be Plain English Day which has in recent years morphed into International Plain Language Day designed to promote the proper use of language. In other words the aim is to cut out all the gibberish, mumbo jumbo, codswallop, balderdash, tripe, tommyrot, twaddle, tosh and bosh you may have become accustomed to… heaven forbid, some of it even in PostScript.
Thai police officer becomes the bee's knees
Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/04/2025
» The feel-good story this week involves a most unlikely hero, a Thai policeman. It is not often that the local gendarmerie are the subject of uplifting news, but that was the case in the Northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom when an alert policeman rescued a woman from a swarm of attacking bees.
We can always live in a dollhouse
Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/07/2024
» Thai tourism authorities are always quick to make the most of any new fad, which might explain the appearance of a life-sized Labubu doll on the front page of the Bangkok Post this week. Apparently, the mascot is part of a promotion to attract Chinese tourists. I confess to not knowing anything about the Labubu craze although the Post's doll correspondent informs me the designer doll is a "kind-hearted monster with pointed ears and serrated teeth". Hmmm.
When drones were bores and bees
Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/07/2023
» When I was a child the word "drone" was used either as a reference to a lazy male bee or a monotonous dull sound, epitomised by people like teachers, preachers or prime ministers "droning on" in boring fashion.
If it's 'early doors' there's plenty of time
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 11/06/2023
» A Thai reader asked recently the meaning of the expression "early doors" which he had heard used frequently in English football commentaries. It has become quite a familiar observation in sport to indicate a game is still at an early stage. It also creeps into everyday language although perhaps in the more common form of "early days".
There's always something worth a laugh
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 11/12/2022
» Recently I watched on television the 1992 film Chaplin, starring Robert Downey Jr as the great English comic actor, best known in Thailand simply as Charlie. It brought back happy memories of the mid-1970s when a series of the Chaplin movies were re-released in Thailand and proved a huge hit. The Thai public loved Charlie.
Cold War getting too hot for comfort
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/02/2022
» Having been brought up in the 1950s and 60s during what was known as the Cold War, I find it a bit sad that after all the ensuing decades nothing seems to have changed. Russia and the West are at it again, still calling one another names. But as long as it remains name-calling we'll take that.
Back in the cinema again with 007
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/10/2021
» Just got back from watching No Time to Die, Daniel Craig's fifth and final appearance as James Bond and the 25th film in the franchise. It was quite a decent send-off for Craig and entertaining enough to sit back and enjoy my first visit to a cinema in a couple of years.
Wrong turn in the Valley of Windmills
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/01/2020
» At my age, any new sensation tends to either be an ache or a pain, however, on New Year's Day I was up at 6am, which was definitely a ground-breaking feeling. I hasten to add this wasn't because I hadn't made it to bed after a night's revelry. Admittedly in the distant past there might have been several occasions in Bangkok when I've witnessed dawn on Jan 1 before hitting the sack, but we won't go into that.