StoneSoup

Following my instructions will result in you passing by many "dens of iniquity" along the way. After the sun goes down, the Smoking Pug itself has nothing open in close proximity on its side of the street - which makes the bluish-white neon sign stand out quite clearly from a distance - althogh it is flat against the wall, so you can't read what it says until you are pretty much in front of it Cheers! SS

All you do is type "Maps" into Google search. Then select Google Maps (the first search result). Then enter 13.729263, 100.529240 into the search window, and click on the magnifying glass search icon. After a few seconds, it gives you a map with the location plotted. Instructions: From Saladaeng BTS Station, walk down Silom to Patpong Soi 1 (THE original Soi Patpong). Turn right onto Soi Patpong, and walk all the way to Surawong Road. Turn left on Surawong, and walk about 250-300 meters - and you will be able to see a white neon sign on opposite side of street that says "Smoking Pug". There is a zebra street crossing site about 50 meters from the restaurant - in the direction toward Patpong. Cheers! SS

Yep - that's the place - recreated/trasnplanted from Chengdu, China. SS

Greetings, Gents - I'm putting in a plug here for a newly-opened restaurant run by a couple of friends of mine - an American married couple. The place is called Tthe Smoking Pug - it serves (very excellent) American-style smokehouse barbecue - and I talked them into putting some craft beers onto the menu as well. Location is Surawong Road - at 13.729263, 100.529240. I'll be there on Saturday night, the 28th of February, from about 7:00 pm until maybe 10:00 pm. They are still in "soft open" mode, to let their Thai staff get their sea legs, and gel together as a team. But - they need some (hungry) warm bodies in seats to make it work. I'll hope to see a couple of you there. Cheers, SS

"Eppur si muove" you pathetic Muslim savage. Our own worst religious morons duplicated your blind ignorance 500-years ago - but we got over it From: http://www.ejectejec...ves/000035.html : "Next time you look at the moon, challenge yourself to think of something: there are footprints up there. Footprints, and tire tracks. Also three used cars, and one golf ball. Why are they there? Because we decided to go to the moon, that's why. What a typically arrogant, unilateral, American conceit! But you know what? That footprint ' you know the picture ' will still be there, unchanged, a million years from now. In ten million years, it might begin to soften a little around the edges. But in a billion years ' a thousand million summers from this one ' it will still be there, next to glistening pyramids of gold and aluminum junk decaying under the steady cosmic drizzle of micrometeorite hits. Eventually, in about five billion years, the sun will run out of hydrogen and start burning helium. When it does, it will begin to swell, consuming Mercury, then Venus as it enters its Red Giant phase. The forests will burn to ash, the oceans boil into steam and then be blown into deep space along with the rest of the atmosphere. Life will have been long gone. But on the moon, there will remain six scraps of colored cloth. Red and white stripes peeking out from the dull grey lunar soil; perhaps a star or two on a faded blue field as the sun reaches out to reclaim her children. Very likely they will be the last, best preserved monuments to our presence as a species on the face of the third planet now burning to a cinder below. But eventually, they will burn too. The sun will contract to a white dwarf, the inner solar system nothing but black cinders, the outer planets shrunken and frozen corpses. Perhaps fifteen billion years from now, a time as far in the future as time goes into the past, there will be nothing here except a burnt-out and cold white dwarf. But somewhere out there, somewhere, there will be four battered, unrecognizable hunks of aluminum and titanium and gold, spinning through deep space, their names recalling the spirit in which they were hurled into the abyss: Pioneer, and Voyager. And the day before the Universe dies, you'll still be able to dimly make out the stripes and star-spangled square, and read the words in the ancient language, from a dead race in the far distant past, when the stars were young and alive: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. There are at least five nations on the earth that had the technical skill, not to mention the money, to do something as grand and noble ' as immortal -- as this. Yet only one has done so. Why us? Why not them? Confidence. That's why." That is one of the best pieces of writing that i have ever read. To priove the quality of the author's writing, go the link that I referenced above, and read the humorous anecdote that precedes the above section. It creates a great, down-to-earth context for the sentiment that I quoted above. And then, to cement your respect for Bill Whittle, and to stiffen your disdain for the Muslim shitstain in the video clip, go read http://www.ejectejec...ves/000033.html part of which I will quote here: "But the crew of Columbia had a much larger helping of joy ' sixteen days in orbit, almost a hundred sunrises and sunsets, playing weightless choo-choo trains through narrow tunnels and tweaking gravity's tail good and long and hard ' and the Columbia Seven would be destined to pay for that by several minutes of knowing that they were about to die. As they strapped themselves in for the long, quiet ride home, they had the satisfaction of a job so well done that NASA was calling it the textbook mission. Rick Husband took his six crewmembers rock climbing during their years of training. He wanted to bond them into more than a crew. He did: he made them into a family. There's a picture of them in shorts and sunglasses, atop that mountain, admiring the view. They look like they'd known each other since grade school. I'll bet they talked about that day as they pulled down their visors, and Willie McCool pitched the Orbiter on its back for the de-orbit burn. They talked about who was waiting for them, where they would go, what they would have for dinner. As Columbia began to press against the first thin wisps of air, a little hint of gravity, a little push at the small of their backs must have felt strange after sixteen days of weightlessness. But it was time to go home. And like all coworkers facing the end of a close assignment and weeks and months of hard work together, I know they planned to get together over the years. I know Laurel and Mike were talking about their families, Dave and Kalpana already grinning about being the old salts next time and how much they would miss this team, this family, in all of their future rides on the bullet. Ilan Ramon must have invited them all to his house in Israel, perhaps a few years from now when things had settled down a little. It's beautiful there. I know that they meant it too, that these were not idle platitudes but real offers from people who knew they would be friends for the rest of their lives. And so they were. Perhaps ten minutes before eight am on Saturday morning, Rick Husband and Willie McCool started to pay attention to the data coming from the left wing sensors. It was 30 degrees warmer than normal in the left wheel well. Not much, considering the 2-3000 degrees on the leading edge of their wings and nose, but something to pay attention to. Anomalies are never good. There are no pleasant surprises in the flying business. By 7:55 things were looking worse ' a lot worse. Unbenownst to the crew, telemetry beamed to the ground showed that readings from the heat sensors in the left wing started to rise, and then dropped to zero. They were failing, in a pattern expanding away from the left wheel well. Tire pressures were way high on the left side, and then those sensors failed too. Sensors fail all the time. But this was different. This was a pattern, and it was spreading. And something was starting to pull the ship to the left. I don't know the words he used, but I can hear the tone perfectly in my head, because it's exactly the same tone I've heard dozens of times on cockpit voice recorders. It's concern. Alarm, even. But it's cool. Disciplined. All right, we've got a problem here... The Pilot and Mission Commander probably never exchanged the knowing look that we'd see in the movie. They were too busy working the problem. But in the two seats behind them, and the three below, those five brave passengers looked at each other and now the smiles and the grins were gone. Something was wrong with Columbia's left wing. The air that should be slipping over and under her like water off the back of a duck had found something to hold on to: almost certainly some missing tiles knocked loose by insulating foam coming off the External Tank. But 3000 degree ionized air was pushing into that wing, and heat sensors were winking out one by one because they were being burned through by gas far hotter and sharper than that at the end of a blowtorch. Guys, we're in real trouble here. The Commander would have told them. I have no doubt of this at all. You love and respect those people, people who have shown courage the likes of which we will never know. These are not babies, not shrieking, hysterical, self-centered celebrities either. These are astronauts. They deserve to know. The air pushing backward and into that left wing continued to yaw the nose of the orbiter to the left. This cannot be allowed to happen ' the ship will disintegrate if she doesn't come in at exactly the right angle. So the computers flying Columbia commanded the aircraft to roll right, to bring that left wing forward using the rudder and elevons, the controls on the wing and tail that made Columbia an airplane and not merely a space capsule. It wasn't working. Columbia still pulled hard to the left, so hard that the computers fired the attitude control rockets on the nose to try and force it back into the relative wind. When that happened, when they heard the roar of those rockets firing in a last desperate effort to keep that ship intact, and when the rockets fired again, and kept firing, Rick Husband and Willie McCool must have known that they were not going home that day. Guys, it's Rick. I don't think we're gonna make it. And I know what courage did for these people. I know they looked at each other and nodded, and whether they actually said goodbye I know it was in their eyes. We know it. We know. We saw it on the deck of the Titanic, in the aisles on United Flight 93. On some level, they had all said goodbye to their families and their lives before they walked through that circular hatch, right below the word COLUMBIA. When PSA Flight 182 collided with a small plane over San Diego in 1978, and dove straight into the ground trailing fire from the wing, the last words on the Cockpit Voice Recorder was a calm, level, 'Ma, I love you.' And in that last second, there may just have been enough time, as that bulkhead wall opened into golden and purple light, to smile and think, It was worth it. It was a great ride." SS

Bust - 'Very cool website! Thanks.

I remember in Ranger School, the immediate action drill for a "near ambush" is to attack (charge) into the direction of fire - which seems EXTREMELY counter-intuitive. But - in reality - if you walk into a well-planned ambush, you have little hope of escaping anyway, and the ONLY hope you really have is to attack into (and past) the guns. The deer just proved the point.

Well, it was three years ago today that Karma scored its geatest victory in my recent memory - on Soi Pridi Binomyong (Soi Prakhanong), when an Iranian ass-hat bomber blew his own legs off. Here he is - Saeid Moradi - in all his glory: http://youtu.be/tx5FZL4dCdE I hope he's enjoying his life sentence in prison. SS

An Aussie friend of mine who runs a business in China told me that China is forecasting that it (alone) will soon be sending 25 miilion tourists per year to Thailand - aided by Thailand's new "no visa required" rule for Chinese visitors. That is basically 2% of the Chinse population. He also describes Chinese as "locusts" who destroy everything they touch, once they are present in large numbers. If 25 million Chinese per year visit Thailand for a week each, that requires 480,000 beds PER NIGHT. Even if you put five people in each room, that amounts to 480 hotels - each with 200 rooms. Crazy numbers. I suspect that Thailand will soon be revisiting their "no visas required" rules, after a "locust plague" decimates a few more tourist areas. Cheers! SS

OK - last Thursday, I had my first opportunity in a long time to dine at the El Gaucho steakhouse on Sukhumvit Soi 19, which was panned pretty badly by Jitagawn in his OP. I was part of a party of five (3 Americans, and a married Thai couple). Based on an earlier arrangement, I paid for all the alcohol, and someone else paid for all the food. In no particular order, here are my comments: 1. The place was PACKED on a random Thursday evening. The primary host called to make reservations around 2:00 pm - the earliest seating he could get was 8:45 pm. Our group showed up at 7:30 to have drinks out front - they managed to get us in early at 7:45 pm, by pulling a few tables together. 2. Our total bill came to about 21,400 baht. 18,300 baht, plus 10% SC, plus 7% VAT. 3. There wasn't a single Thai server in the place. The floor captain in our area was from Croatia, and all the waitresses we spoke with were Filipinas. Service was EXCELLENT. 4. You can see the menu at http://elgaucho.asia...nd_30092014.pdf 5. I had Item 31 off the menu - Filet Steak, 350 gram, USDA Prime - 2,590 baht. Cooked medium. The five best steaks I've ever eaten are pretty much indistinguishable in my memory (at age 58) - but this was definately one of them. I've never had better. It was huge - you get your money's worth. 6. We ordered various accompanying dishes - all were acceptable, none were extraordinary. All side dishes were HEAVY on garlic - which I do not particularly care for. 7. We all left happy. I feel bad for Jitagawn - he had a bad experience - but I had a great experience. I will say this: It is a pricey place. You can't go in there planning to spend less than about 3,000 baht a head, and still have a great meal. I'd suggest budgeting at least 4,000 baht. 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.

Well, it appears that El Gaucho in Bangkok does not even serve any Argentinian beef: http://elgaucho.asia/thailand/wp-content/uploads/Food_Menu_Thailand_30092014.pdf So - BB evidently had bad US beef. I will see about paying a revisit to the place sometime soon.

Also - BB - your problem may have been in selecting Argentinian beef. I chose the USA Prime beef - and it was great.

Hello BB - I first visited in September 2012 - here was my write-up: http://t2.thai360.com/index.php?/topic/58540-restaurant-review-el-gaucho/ , and I last visited in maybe June or July 2013 - so things may have gone down hill over the past 18 months. But - I stand by my original observations - as of the date they were written. Cheers! SS

I ate at El Gaucho three or four times during their first year. Every meal was OUTSTANDING - rivaling the best I have had anywhere. But - the prices were dear indeed. I never encountered a single Thai server. Art that time, servers were from Slovak Repuiblic, Philippines, Vietnam, Nepal, and a couple of other places - and they delivered five star service. I have not been back in the past 18 months or so - it is just too expensive for my tastes. But - I haven't a bad word to say about what they delivered. Cheers! SS

'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