Showing 1 - 9 of 9
It's feeling a bit on the warm side
Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/04/2024
» It was Oscar Wilde who observed that "conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative". He might have had a point but it means there are a lot of unimaginative people in Thailand at present. I can hardly recall a conversation lately without a reference to the heat. It has definitely been "a bit on the warm side".
Farewell George, a colleague and friend
Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/03/2024
» I begin with the sad news that former Bangkok Post colleague George Stevens has passed away after a long illness.
The day the filming had to stop
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 11/10/2020
» An article headlined "The man, myth and legend" on Wednesday by Tatat Bunnag marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Thailand's biggest-ever film star, Mitr Chaibancha. The actor plunged to his death at the age of 36, while filming a helicopter scene at Jomtien for Insee Thong (Golden Eagle). Mitr had insisted on doing his own stunts and was clinging from a rope ladder dangling from the copter but couldn't hold on. He truly is a legend.
The sorry plight of the bumblebee
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/03/2020
» A welcome distraction from the Coronavirus crisis came this week from a most unlikely source. Over the wall at the back of my Bangkok abode there is a drainage ditch which also hosts a couple of trees providing welcome shade for the rear of the house. On Thursday my wife summoned me to the back of the house. She pointed at one of the trees in animated fashion -- all I could see was leaves.
The girl from the Black Country
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/03/2020
» My thanks to readers who pointed out that Janice Nicholls, who featured in last week's column, did not have a Brummie accent at all, but a Black Country lilt, hailing from Wednesbury, just west of Birmingham.
A triumph of imagination over intelligence
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 16/02/2020
» I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but considering the awful events of recent weeks, a bit of "love", however contrived, was a welcome break from the daily diet of depressing news. So this week, it feels like an appropriate time to dwell on matters of the heart, as long as it is not a cardiac arrest.
2019 more a celebration of 1969
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/12/2019
» It is customary at this time of the year to take a look at some of the major happenings of the past 12 months. This past year has been rather unusual in that it marked a host of significant 50th anniversaries. In fact the year was almost as much about 1969 as 2019. So to kick things off, let's just recall a few of those events 50 years ago.
The Thai Blob is spreading its wings
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/01/2019
» Many readers will be familiar with the long-running Adventures of the Blob on certain Thai TV channels in the war against cigarettes. When movies are shown, the blob races around the screen in pursuit of rogue cigarettes and attempts to blob them out to protect defenceless viewers. Unsurprisingly, the ridiculous blob only succeeds in irritating the TV audience. The absurdity of it all was highlighted recently during a gangster movie in which nearly everyone in the room was smoking. This prompted a squadron of blobs to go whizzing across the screen, fighting a losing battle and reducing a supposedly serious scene into a foggy farce.
You can't beat a good song in the gridlock
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/09/2018
» Earlier this week a veteran taxi driver told me he was a great fan of Elvis Presley. He proceeded to sing Love Me Tender for most of the journey. He wasn't too bad either -- Elvis would have been proud. The crooner cabbie said singing took his mind off the horrors of Bangkok's traffic.