Etaoin Shrdlu

I was married for less than one year when I applied (successfully) for PR back in the 1990s. My application did reference the marriage and that my wife was expecting. Since Immigration followed up and asked for a copy of the birth certificate during the course of the review period, clearly the marriage and child did count for something. Having said that, I don't believe that there is a category for PR that is based upon marriage to a Thai. The requirements are visa, tax and education for the most part. Being married to a Thai may help, but isn't the basis for PR.

Brings a new meaning to the term "Chinese takeaway".

Ecstasy isn't a narcotic. That designation is reserved for opioids and similar. Law enforcement seems to have hijacked the term and lazy journalism perpetuates the mistake.

The dirty tricks are baked into the constitution and the Senate.

When filing form 114 (FBAR), FinCen asks for your email address and then sends a confirming email to acknowledge receipt of the completed form. If you have access to the email account you used when filing, you may be able to find the acknowledgement email if it hasn't been deleted. No idea how to go back and review the form after submission without contacting FinCen other than looking at a copy saved when filing.

You need to report each of them individually on the FBAR form. Once the value of all accounts combined exceeds the equivalent of USD10,000, all accounts, regardless of individual balance, need to be reported.

I stand corrected. There is a semi-automatic version available which is legal in most states in the US.

Given the description of the incident, I would suspect rabies. Rats don't normally go around biting trees, or humans unless provoked. Even absent such behavior, this is one of those situations where even if the possibility of rabies is low, the severity of its consequences is so high that the cost and inconvenience of treatment is nothing.

AK-47 is an automatic rifle. For almost all Americans, not legal to possess. I suspect that if it were legal to own automatic rifles, those with mere AR-15s would upgrade to M-16s or perhaps AK-47s. I remember the days when the Saturday night special was the weapon that was vilified. Oh, for simpler times!

Yes, that's it!

Yes, close to where Wave Place is now or perhaps it was where Noble Ploenchit or Rosewood Hotel is. It's been a long time.

Our 18-year-old son went for a physical exam here in Bangkok as required by the US university he is now attending. The exam revealed he had PVCs of about 11%. We were told by local doctors that no limitation on physical activity was needed and no treatment necessary. In other words, "it's nothing". Nine months later son ends up in ER for two days in the US after feeling dizzy and faint following rugby. After extensive tests, the PVCs were identified as the likely cause. He's had the ablation procedure earlier this year and the PVCs are now less than half a percent. He's been given the green light to participate in sports and will follow up in a few months with his cardiologist to see how his cardiomyopathy has resolved. Given Thai hospitals' propensity to over-treat and recommend everything they can think of, I can't imagine why ablation was not recommended here. Perhaps they don't have anyone that can perform it.

When I do similar, I just blame it on Old Timer's Disease.

Do you mean Petchburi? Ploenchit isn't anywhere near Ekkamai.

There used to be a free-standing Foodland on Ploenchit that served the lower Sukhumvit area back in the last millennium. It had a carpark and I recall getting weekend groceries there. Long gone now.

Under Republicans, life begins at conception and ends in a mass shooting.

If one is driving a car and is stopped for a red light, it is common to say "sitting in the car waiting for the light to turn green". It seems that when the car is motionless, it turns the driver into a sitter.

Then there's the term "joyriding" which means driving fast or dangerously for enjoyment in a stolen car. I've never heard of it called "joydriving".

Interesting that when one is a passenger in a car, one is "riding in the car" even though not sitting astride.

Mrs. Shrdlu was convinced that hanging CDs would deter the pigeons that used to hang around our house. I wasn't so sure since we did not know what music genre they despised and had not seen any pigeons carrying CD players anyway. We ended up blocking off any eaves where they could nest and putting out spikes on most horizontal surfaces where they could perch. No pigeons now.

Had a small one on my face that would bleed if I nicked it while shaving. Had it removed at Bumrungrad Hospital. The dermatologist used a laser. Cost was minimal, but that was a number of years ago. No scar now or any sign that it was ever there.

I have experience as a representative payee for my children. Here's the link: https://www.ssa.gov/payee/

Up until about five years ago, representative payees who managed SSA payments for minor children had to file an annual worksheet showing a breakdown of how the funds were used to support the child. While this form is no longer required, there is still the stipulation that the funds be used for the support of the child during the period that they are being paid. This means used for food, shelter, clothing and certain other items of support. The funds aren't supposed to be saved for use for college or other items later. Some years back, I read about a person who mentioned in a newspaper article that she had saved SSA payments for her dependent's college education. Someone at SSA read the article and contacted her with a demand to repay the funds, if I remember correctly. There is info about this requirement somewhere on the SSA website and also in the info you'll get if you're the representative payee.

The labels seem to state that the contents are made from recycled Pepsi.

I had the firm that handled my employer's legal, auditing and tax work handle the paperwork for my application. They did not charge that much since they already had the firm's audit and tax business. I convinced the directors that this would save money in the long run because annual visa admin and expenses would go away, so my employer paid the preparation fees. The auditing firm was, at the time, the local associate of one of the major US accounting firms, but I don't think that's the case any longer. But you might want to look into leveraging your employer's relationships with their legal or audit firms.