cdemundo

"The idea that you don't need to pay someone to be with you in the West is a bit of a red herring." Absolutely, payment is just structured differently. I once heard a radio program about American men dating and marrying Asian women. The narrator was an Asian American woman, at one point she was talking about an older American guy who wanted to marry and was writing to a woman in China. The narrator said about the guy "He didn't even own his home." As if he had a lot of nerve to want to marry when he "didn't even own a home." How revealing is that about the economic deal underlying marriage? And how materialistic is the radio "journalist"?

Just saw a video of Mike Tyson saying that the best years of his life were the years he spent in prison.

My friend and co-worker put his son in online high school because he wasn't making progress towards graduation. He was failing several classes. The online courses that he took had daily well-defined assignments that the parents could monitor. My friend was calling his son several times a day to make sure he was getting his work done and to keep him focussed on the progress he was making. I remember that the young man caught up with his studies and ended up graduating in the normal 4 years. My friend felt that the key was the parents having the goals available and being able to work with the student and keep him on track.

I'm safe, I never get invited to orgies.

Right, this is from fantasists, gun fondlers. I would like to see the average angry gun owner try and take on Seal Team 6.

I don't know about needing a vaccine, that's why I asked "Is it needed?". I saw a video of someone who had it and had terrible sores on face, neck, chest - I definitely don't want that.

Is monkeypox vaccination available in Thailand? Is it needed? In the US very restrictive eligibility.

'The site onwardflights.com has been "suspended" ' Seems to be accessible now.

Coffee?

Wow, that bugs you? I can't imagine that.

Actually, I have been wondering about BBC shows we get in the US. In those shows interracial couples are very common, much more common that what I think we see in the US. Does that reflect the reality in the UK?

" if your govt pension is approx $1150 or more you will get more baht in your acct if using the ACH method but as mentioned earlier only Bangkok Bank offers the ACH method which requires the special/restricted acct. But if you receive less than approx $1150 then you will be better off using the IDD method in terms of most baht in your acct." How much is the difference for greater than $1150? Is it in the less than 1% range or is it substantial?

There was no similar violent event that you can point to as a result of Obama's speech. The great Philly riot! I remember it well! Not.

Mr. Cat Stevens said it nicely.

The Boxtops "The Letter" was a little masterpiece. Oh the horn arrangements in that song. Thanks for that nugget about the length of the number one songs. Fun facts.

Talent is of course huge, essential. Some talented folks (musicians, athletes, whatever) practice hard and don't realize that for those of us without talent no amount of practice will do. But at the top level practice can give an edge, his opponents used to say about the hard-practicing Larry Bird "The more Bird practices the luckier he gets". Also Steve Nash who was an NBA great said "If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I'd be out of a job." He was recognizing his level of talent needed hard work to stay at the top level. But you hear a lot of successful people who work hard (and have worked hard) who don't realize that without the talent that allows hard work to lead to progress, they would not have succeeded on hard work alone.

Well no, not compulsory. Even still...

Was a song by Bobby Bland in 1961, so was maybe current slang before Mr. T started saying it.

"You live in the U.S." That kind of sums it up.

"You must be the only farang who likes the music." I like Morlam and other traditional music. To me it isn't that different from western music, but I know it isn't for everybody. I guess I am sort of a world music dork, but I find a lot of different music interesting.

"There are 3 situations when Medicare may pay for certain types of health care services you get in a foreign hospital (a hospital outside the U.S.): You’re in the U.S. when you have a medical emergency, and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your illness or injury. You’re traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your illness or injury. Medicare determines what qualifies as “without unreasonable delay” on a case-by-case basis. You live in the U.S. and the foreign hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition, regardless of whether it’s an emergency." "Except in the limited situations described on page 1, Medicare doesn’t pay for health care services you get outside the U.S." Seems like care in Thailand is not one of these 3 situations.

I was at a beer bar off 2nd Road and an English speaking customer was complaining loudly to his pals about the beer price. A bar girl asked me "what's he saying?" I told her and her response was: "Can get at Family Mart instead." She was not being sarcastic or mean, she just felt like, "want cheaper beer? go to Family Mart" all sorted.

I was wondering, aren't Casios inexpensive watches? Maybe they have a deluxe line as well?

I gotta go with the poster who recommended the old "moderation in all things". So a little bit of exercise followed by "sitting on the sofa, drinking a beer, smoking a joint and posting on AN" is probably not so bad.

Yes, Fixx apparently ignored chest pain and other symptoms and "pushed through". Sad to die at 52 years old in any case.