StoneSoup

Which is real life, and which is fantasy? Is "there" the real thing, and "here" is the fantasy excursion, or is "here" the real thing? Does the tail wag the dog? Is "home" the place that you spend nine dismal months per year, or is "home" where you spend three pleasant months per year? Only the shadow knows...... "It's not my circus,. and these are not my monkeys." Cheers! SS

Hey Jack - You must have overlooked this one: LvCornwallis wrote: “Redlight Hotel†Reviewed July 12, 2014 First of all, every square inch of this hotel is most likely covered in sperm dating back to the 1970's. The hotel is filthy, but I guess it does not matter because I was up to filthy activities anyway. Great location for picking up third world hookers, I even saw a ladyboy knife fight in front of the hotel.

'Sorry to hear of the loss. I have a Bangkaew dog (well, about 90%, anyway) that just hit 10 years old this week. He is already starting to fade. I have always taken him out walking in our gated community late at night, usually around midnight - so that I could let him run around free without him bothering anyone. It never ceases to amaze me how enthusiastically excited he has gotten each and every night for ten years, as soon as I step out into the gated carport where he hangs out - he knows that he's going for a walk, and every time he acts like he hasn't been walked in five years - and just starts jumping and yipping ecstatically. So many nights I've returned home half pickled - and would just love to crash out and sleep - but I just couldn't deprive this mutt of his main joy of every day. Pouring rain - no matter. He just doesn't like close lightning/thunder. KS - you should get a new dog - both for you, and for him/her. Dogs need their people, to be complete..

For Joe Cocker, there is a natural farewell song:

Now, about that work permit (or.... "Never Say Never"): http://stuppid.com/grandfather-busted-prostituting-himself-young-women/ Grandfather Busted For Prostituting Himself… To Young Women 88-year-old grandfather, Edwin Venn, was arrested Tuesday night for prostitution, along with his "john ", Amanda Pearson, 23. Police had been watching Venn for several months and noticed a peculiar pattern. “His johns were all young women. Twenties, thirties. Most quite beautiful. Never really seen anything like this dynamic, but strange things do happen.†Mr. Venn stood most weekend nights with cardboard sign on Hollywood Blvd that read: “I’m for sale.†Pearson admitted during her arraignment that when she found the 88-year-old Venn trying to turn tricks she and her friends decided it would be funny to sleep ‘with an old guy.’ Word spread and lots of girls paid Venn for sex. Pearson said he only charged five dollars and gave them lollipops afterward. Lollipops!?! Man, what a class act! Cheers! SS

Late 1966. I was ten years old. My year group (born 1956) was the last one to actually be issued draft cards - but I think that last actual draft lottery was held in 1972 - the US Military went all volunteer as on January 27, 1973. Cheers! SS

At this website, you can look up US Military pay tables going back to 1949: http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/militarypaytables.html I see that as newly-commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1978, my monthly base pay was $844.20. I was on jump status with the 82nd Abn Div, so the additional $110 per month jump pay added another 12.4% - which was much appreciated. Military pay used to be pretty awful. Now - given the bad economy in the USA, military pay is looking reasonably attractive, as long as you are not dodging bullets, RPG's, and IED's. Cheers! SS

Well, it appears that white people ("white devils"?) are no longer welcome to even live in parts of Obama's America: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/bk-women-force-tenants-gunpoint-squat-apartment-cops-article-1.1931834 Two Brooklyn women tired of 'white people moving into the area' force tenants out at gunpoint, then squat in apartment: police Precious Parker, 30, and Sabrina James, 23, were arrested Saturday after they allegedly kicked two men and a woman out of an Ocean Ave. apartment on Thursday. Authorities say the crime was partly motivated by race and class resentment. I sure am glad that Obama (and Eric Holder) came along to help build racial harmony, and "heal the wounds" of strained race relations in America. Cheers! SS

'Time to put all the "global cooling deniers" in their places: Surprise! Glaciers appearing in Scotland Hazards common in arctic and alpine areas but described as "extremely unusual" in the UK during the summer have been found on Ben Nevis. A team of climbers and scientists investigating the mountain's North Face said snowfields remained in many gullies and upper scree slopes. On these fields, they have come across compacted, dense, ice hard snow call neve. Neve is the first stage in the formation of glaciers, the team said. The team has also encountered sheets of snow weighing hundreds of tonnes and tunnels and fissures known as bergschrunds. The large, deep cracks in the ice are found at the top of glaciers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-28885119

OK - it is now September 5th. One week from now, the USA will be sorting through the wreckage of this year's vintage of 9-11 terrorist strikes. In his infinite wisdom, President "More Mush from the Wimp" Obama's administration has announced the removal of funding from some or all of each of the following programs: Hellfire missile Tomahawk missile A-10 Thunderbolt ("Warthog") So - my question is: where are likely to be three targets hit on 9-11-14? My guesses: Texas Colorado Virginia Oh - and Iraq and Afghanistan don't count - the "background noise" explosions would likely make it tough to accurately discern a strictly anniversary-based attack. I will be delighted if 9-11-14 is actually "kaboom-less" - I just don't think that the slavering jihadists will be able to pass up the opportunity to take cheap shots at Uncle Sam, while the feckless Obama cruises the golf links, and fist-bumps his way through various celebrity fund-raising parties. And - those three weapons systems up above? As a former Infantry officer, I have a hard time thinking of any other weapons systems that have done a better job of taking out bad guys, while minimizing risks to the good guys. WTF are they thinking, to diminish or eliminate these programs???? Cheers! SS

Is that maybe a local franchise name for a "Hooters" bordello restaurant ? Cheers! SS

25 Year Ago - Wendy James

For some reason the lyrics reminded me of a lot of realationships in Bangkok: "...playin' detective,wanna' know it, too Goin' through my pockets, searchin' for clues Trying to follow me, you and the desperate crew The end of this relationship was long overdue Now what you did was cute, girl' you spent the loot Easy on the tears, oops, 'mind you'll soil the suit Do yourself a favor, and find a new recruit And don't take it personal. because you got the boot..." http://youtu.be/NTdz0zRAWEM

For anyone who might be interested in the Bitcoin phenomenon, from the standpoint of how things work in Thailand, I have launched a website to serve as a central clearinghouse for relevant information. You can find a directory listing the (very few) business in Thailand that currently accept Bitcoin at: http://www.bitcoinrealmthai.com/ You can read an accurate summary of Thai government treatment of the first fully-legal Bitcoin exchange in Thailand at http://www.bitcoinrealmthai.com/thai-government-regulation-bitcoin-trading/ If anyone is interested in learning more, there is weekly meetup of Bitcoin enthusiasts, as posted at: http://www.meetup.com/Bangkok-Satoshi-Square/ Bitcoin has three main uses: 1. As a store of value - and it continues to take periodic beatings in this regard, due to whipsaw price volatility. 2. As a means of carrying out convenient retail or on-line financial transactions - with an app on your mobile phone, you can make a payment down to 25 satang very quickly and easily, at a merchant set up to acceopt payments; in the future, it will be easy to make (or receive) on-line micropayments - of, say, 20 or 30 baht - opening up new ways of delivering paid content at a very low threshhold of entry. 3. As a method of transferring funds internationally - quickly and inexpensively. In this role, Bitccoin van be thought of as a "magic envelope". You purchase as envelope to hold a specified amount of funds in whatever currency you are using to purchase the envelope at your end. The size of the envelope is determined by the amount of money it contains. You then send the "magic envelope" off to its destination - similary to sending a e-mail message or Tweet - but to a very strange looking alphanumeric address. The "magic envelope" reaches its destination within a few minutes - anywhere in the world that has internet. It can move 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The "postage" for the trip is about 1 Satang - regardless of the size of the envelope. The recipent "opens the envelope" by "cashing it in" for an amount of money in local currency, roughly equivalent to what you orginally put into the envelope. The "magic envelope" is then ready for reuse by someone else. Right now, due to limited numbers of exchange points, the "exchange rates" between Bitcoin and local currencies can be somewhat unattractive - but that situation will improve, as more players begin enterring the market, increasing competitiveness. Resistance to Bitcoin in 2014 is almost perfectly mirroring resistance to e-mail in 1994. It is only a matter of time before digital currencies become ubiquitous. Cheers! SS

James R. Schlesinger, Willful Aide to Three Presidents, Is Dead at 85 James R. Schlesinger, a tough Cold War strategist who served as secretary of defense under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford and became the nation’s first secretary of energy under President Jimmy Carter, died on Thursday in Baltimore. He was 85. A brilliant, often abrasive Harvard-educated economist, Mr. Schlesinger went to Washington in 1969 as an obscure White House budget official. Over the next decade he became chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, director of Central Intelligence, a cabinet officer for three presidents (two of whom fired him), a thorn to congressional leaders and a controversial national public figure. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/us/politics/james-r-schlesinger-cold-war-hard-liner-dies-at-85.html?_r=0 Quite a resume: Secretary of Defense, Director of the CIA, Chairman Atomic Energy Commission. I remember him for two things: 1. He was the Secretary of Defense when I memorized my first military Chain of Command in 1974 (way, way deep into the recitation) 2. He was the driving force and main proponent for developing both the A-10 Warthog Thunderbolt, and also the F-16. As a grunt, those were guardian angels to be cherished when available. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Schlesinger RIP. Cheers! SS

I will drink this evening to Fred Phelps dying in agony - a slow lingering death would be ideal.

Hal Douglas, "The Movie Trailer Guy", dead at age 89. I'll bet you can recognize his voice: (and this clip will probably put a smaile on your face) Cheers! SS

While doing some business research involving GMM Grammy Group, I stumbled across the story of this guy, of whom I had never before heard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewat_Buddhinan Then I found one of his songs on-line - evidently performed and filmed in 1986: http://youtu.be/XsPNP18Gu_Q Not half-bad at all. Flash - you must have heard of this guy - he must have effectively been the first real rock star of Thailand. He evidently died in 1996, at just 48 years of age. 'Founder of GMM Grammy in Thailand - which is now a quite substantial empire. Cheers! SS

OK, I feel a bit hesitant to cast dispersions upon a recently departed gent who can't defend himself - but ..... I'm not so sure that Nelson Mandela's saintliness was not substantially fabricated by a white western media that felt guilty. To whit: “I salute the South African Communist Party for its sterling contribution to the struggle for democracy.â€

A holiday tune - very well performed:

OK, this one is really "outside the box" - but, give it a chance - the guy actually has an amazing voice:

http://youtu.be/7z3TPwOT31g

Lou Reed. R.I.P.

Two bad-ass cellos, plus one fine drummer:

Johnny Cash's haunting cover of a song by Nine Inch Nails: