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I heard recently that China will be building a high speed train from LA to Las Vegas (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vegas-la-chinese-high-speed-rail-20150917-story.html).. also heard recently from a well respected China expert that this talk about risks WRT China is unfounded. China still looks good to me (but I did sell my China stocks right before the correction last April). I might get back in soon.

I'm spending less and less time in LOS these days but it turns out I will be coming on the 3rd of Dec for about a week, spending most of my time in Jomtien/Pattaya Beach. On my trip last year, the lines at the BKK airport were murder. I almost missed my connection even after managing to bypass the lines. Being a frugal guy, I decided to catch the public BKK to Pattaya bus this time. I think the cost is 100 Baht and it runs every hour from the airport all the way to Jomtien Beach. My hotel is only a couple of blocks from the bus station on the main Baht Bus route, so I'll catch the Baht Bus for the last leg of the trip.

You make a good point, although many people use booze in a medicinal way to keep dem demons in check. You need that drink every now and then to reboot your psyche so to speak. Moderation is the rule. Drink excessively and dem demons will find you for sure.

The Dark Valley is pretty good. It remeinds me of McCabe & Mrs Miller (the snow scenes) and The Good , Bad & Ugly (the intensity of the hero). The movie had me riveted to the screen. A German flick w/ subtitles. It has won awards.

It may be worth searching for a good lawyer/investigator who's willing to work just for a small fraction of the funds recovered from this builder. If nobody is willing to do it for that, it may not be worth pursuing.

I don't believe Stickman will leave LOS permanently. A place like LOS can grow on you. Look at Trink, he is still around.

Beaujolais Nouveau 2014 is not bad. I bought a whole case of the stuff at $8.50/bottle (Costco USA). In LOS (the last time I checked, a few yrs back), it can cost about $50 (US). It's not worth it at that price, but for less than 8-9 dollars/bottle, you might want to get one.

I think it was the great artist, Picasso, who said that any publicity is good. So all of this news coverage that Cosby is getting is good for him (per Picasso, that is). Cosby may make zillion $ writing a book about his version of this mess, making a hollywood movie, etc. This additional coverage will make him a larger figure historically.

They should be able to find something to charge him with but there is no law against using that choke hold ( there is no penalty specified).

Roman Polanski is a wanted man in the US, so he still may be prosecuted. (Shame on France for giving him asylum). Jimmy Saville is dead -- there is a law that says you can't put a dead man on trial. My understanding is that there is not enough evidence to put Bill Cosby on trial. The victim has to file charges in some of these cases and there has to be sufficient evidence before the prosecutor will take it to court. People loved Cosby's public personna, but he may be very different in private. It boils down to evidence -- is there enough for conviction.

I liked Bill Cosby but if this is true, he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No one is above the law. It's bad for society (especially a democratic one) if rich and the powerful is perceived to be above the law.

When I was there for a year in the 60's, I got lucky and was shacked up w/ a German babe who had spent 2- 3 yrs in California where her parents lived. She spoke English better than I. We had great times together. The food and sekt were great. I never did learn much German (other than the cuss words). I've been back a few times since then when I traveled around Europe.

In the late 60's, I was stationed near Frankfurt for about a year, in a town called Hanau. I had some great times there.

I made a reservation for arrival in early Nov. for a couple of wks stay. This time I'm flying trans-Atlantic (from east coast USA). My past trips to LOS had been all trans-Pacific. I was surprised to find that taking the Atlantic route costs the same number of FF points on UAL, takes less time by about 2 hours, and only one stopover in Frankfurt (usually 2 stopovers for Pacific routes).

Lowell, Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts at Lowell is there now. When I was there in the 70's, it was called Lowell Tech. It was an old mill town still trying to get over the Great Depression of the 30's.

In the early 70's, Dionne Warwick came to a small, hick, armpit of america town called Lowell. I was there in college at the time during some of the worst yrs of my life. She gave a one night stand concert in the school gym. It was reported in the news that she brought the house down that night. Years later, they were asking her about the best audience she has ever performed for and she said that that one night stand in Lowell was the best. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dDblF-J6qvY

See below http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/27/britain-would-be-second-poorest-us-state

We're in a different world.... my thing at the moment is RAISE BED GARDEN. I have to pick up some concrete blocks from Home Depot and move sifted dirt into a 4' x 8' raised bed garden made from 8" x 8 " x 16" concrete blocks....[this is not to say that I will not be back in LOS in a few months' punting in the back sois of Pattaya ] .

I was reading a piece that said something to effect that if Britain were a State in USA, it would be the poorest State in USA next to Alabama. This explains the state of Britain today. If you look at Britain in this light, it is not surprising that Scotland wants to secede.

I'm surprised this succession thing is even taking place. In the 1800's, the South wanted to do just that in USA and more than half a million people died in the Civil War. What is different now? Nobody wants to fight. Fighting for one's country is passe?

Double Indemnity -- an old classic-- I had trouble accepting Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwick as lovers in leading roles but the screen play is remarkable.

12 Angry Men and Witness for the Prosecution -- a couple of great classics.

Years ago, in high school, there used to be a guy who sat in front of me in class. His name was Paul Delaney. The teacher was a old skinny woman with a wrinkled face who used to sit on a student's disk up front and carry on an extended monologue. She had the respect of all students in that class except Paul Delaney. In the middle of her monologue, he would say out loud, "PRUNE FACE...PRUNE FACE..." .... She would pretend like she didn't hear him and continue with her monologue....

I tried a couple of times to watch this movie on Netflix but I just can't get passed the first 30 minutes... . I recently subscribed to Netflix and am watching a lot more movies now.

You may have missed the gist of the movie. There is a great twist in the plot that gradually reveals itself. In the opening scene, the main character (John Travolta) is kneeling to be shot for Bosnian war crimes. He's the last one in the row of men to be shot in the back of the head. There is an executioner behind each man to be shot. The execution starts in sequence, but very quickly. When it is his turn, there is a long pause before the shot, and it gave him a chance to turn around to get a good look at his executioner. He somehow survives; and years later, after the war, he travels to USA to seek this "executioner" (De Niro). It looks like he's seeking revenge against the shooter during most of the movie but, as Travolta goes about trying to kill De Niro, it gradually dawns on him and to the audience that this "executioner" is the ARCHETYPICAL GOOD GUY and had actually saved his life by shooting him in the spot that would allow him to survive. That is the twist. I liked the movie --