• OPINION

  Don't think twice, Bob -- it's all right

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 23/10/2016

  » Everyone has an opinion on Bob Dylan being the first songwriter to win the Nobel prize for literature. The organisers explained Dylan was bestowed the honour "as a great poet". At the time of writing, he has yet to respond, a poet unusually lost for words.

• OPINION

  Words you don't really want to hear

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/12/2022

  » It's that time of the year when publishers of major dictionaries bombard us with what they regard as the "words of the year". They rarely agree on the same offering, but there is one common theme -- nearly all words selected are frankly rather depressing.

• OPINION

  'Boaty McBoatface' just wouldn't float

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 08/05/2016

  » Earlier this year, Britain's National Environment Research Council (NERC) decided it would be a good idea for the public to choose the name of their new polar scientific research ship. What better example of democracy in action?

• OPINION

  Mushrooms make their presence felt

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 16/10/2022

  » The most exciting news of the week is that mushrooms were found growing on a seat of an active Bangkok bus. In addition to carrying passengers on the No 82 route from Phra Pradaeng to Phahurat, the bus featured a battered seat covered in newly sprouted mushrooms. Alas, the seat has now been replaced by spoilsport officials following complaints from passengers unimpressed by sitting next to a seat covered in fast-growing fungi.

• OPINION

  Seeing red as Sgt Nop takes over lights

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/09/2016

  » Reports that Bangkok police have been ordered to abandon computerised traffic lights and return to manual handling have not exactly been greeted with dancing in the streets by the city's long-suffering motorists.

• OPINION

  Thailand through the looking glass

  Roger Crutchley, Published on 07/01/2024

  » It's that time of the year when newspaper columnists predict what's in store for the next 12 months. Hopefully it will be an improvement on last year. We have just about scraped through the Year of the Rabbit but I haven't got too much faith in what the Year of the Dragon has to offer. We cannot rule out another annus horribilis.

• OPINION

  Making a name for oneself in Thailand

  Roger Crutchley, Published on 17/09/2023

  » Last week's PostScript noted how the use of first names or nicknames in Thailand saves everyone a lot of trouble considering the long Thai surnames. However, this does not totally rule out misunderstandings. Many foreigners find their names pronounced in a unique manner, but that's all part of the fun of living in Thailand.

• OPINION

  As long as it's a bit better than last year

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/01/2022

  » It's that time of the year for columnists to suggest what could be in store for the next 12 months. However, things are so unpredictable at the moment even Nostradamus would struggle to come up with a half-decent forecast. Of course Thailand is not immune to the uncertainty although you wouldn't rule out occasional "misappropriation of funds" or to use the correct technical term, "cooking the books."

• OPINION

  Beware the TV bookshelf backdrop

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/02/2021

  » Since the arrival of Covid we have been accustomed to watching television programmes with pundits, politicians and celebrities interviewed in their homes, invariably with bookcases being the backdrop of choice.

• OPINION

  More a sorry scrawl than a signature

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 15/09/2019

  » Visiting the bank the other day I had to sign a bunch of documents that no doubt would be carefully filed away to collect dust in a basement, never to be seen again. By the time I had finished I was uncomfortably aware that no two signatures of mine are exactly the same, even when written in close succession.

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