LaosLover

100% true. Pscychologists call it main character syndrome. Def worth a google. And then the rest of the world makes it worse by being so obsessed about us. Australians know the names of small district congresspeople and follow their careers. I can't name a single Australian politician. Something foreign breaking through to us has to be at the level of Prince Harry. And then it's like for 4 days. We are Madonna; the rest to the world is the Madonna fan club. You could all ignore us back out of spite, but since we can't even find your country on a globe, our ignoring of you is pretty air tight and implacable. As to JingTing's objection to giving a state to the 'where you from?' question. If I say the states, they ask, 'where?'. And then I say where, So now I just lead off with the where. Sadly, the days of American-dissing are all but gone. A few years ago, a Canadian woman at the Writer's Bar, was complaining about fat Americans. "You don't look like you missed too many meals either", I offered up cheerfully. We need more such intercultural slanging. I lived in England and enjoyed the pub teasing culture, but most Americans can't shovel it back.

I've done the math and living in Nutbush, Mississippi costs about the same as Chiang Mai. It would def help if you like 'em fat and Jesus-loving. At least your box wine would be cheap.

Buy the total stock market index, toss in a total market bond chunk, buy a dividend ETF. Call it 33% in each basket. Netting out about 3.5% income, much better than the bank rate. Very low risk. If these investments ever go to zero, then civilization has ended and you should have bought bullets and opiates instead,

Many people aim a staple gun at their dumb faces and just fire away. Oh, how I laugh.

When I lived in England, I liked Bells and Famous Grouse (but not the Grouse black label, see above) . Not all that far off premium brands in taste. I also recall Peatlings, often a house double-pour in poverty-pubs. Not too bad. Like 100 Pipers from 7/11. My friend from Kyoto just bought something called Simply Red (the wine, not the bad singer) at a Fuji Superette and pronounced it a 600 baht bottle for 400 baht; which I think is some pretty feint praise.

Have never been really slayed by J-whiskey. It's an expensive affectation. But if anyone's pouring a whiskey north of 1500 baht...... Johnny Walker Double-black, the high end splurge at 7/11, is like drinking liquid smoke.

Japan is indeed a lovely place to saddle into some ally bar, order up some meat on sticks and try a few sake's. Sake and sushi is second only to red wine and Italian red sauce. But beer and Mexican food is up there too. A Beer Lao and a too-spicy, too stinky papaya salad is something I could eat once a week for the rest of my life, A friend just popped over from Kyoto with some sake brewed by monks in a temple on sacred Mount Koyasan, It actually has a discernible under-taste of granite. I feel bad for non-drinkers who have to lick a rock to taste granite. I also feel bad for people who are ordering up a charcuterie and cheese platter with a Diet Coke. He also brought a bottle cherry branch sake with a cherry branch handpainted on the label for us to try when we go out for wagyu beef. He says cherry branch sake (no cherry flavor, just the branch) and raw wagyu is the ultimate flavor paring. When I visit him in Kyoto this spring, he'll take me to a place where they steep persimmons in Grey Goose Vodka and serve it in glass that's also a frozen persimmon. With a sprig of jasmine smoking under a dome. I scoff at dome-smoke drinks, but I've loved every one I've had. Extra credit thread jack: What is your favorite alcohol made my religious people? I'll go with Chartreuse. I went through a 2 bottles of Chartreuse a year-phase for a few years (the green, not the yellow). But a browny-brown Trappist Ale is hard to beat too.

If people are pushing things on you and you feel that they are "normalizing" things you don't like, I refer you to a favorite Bruce Springsteen lyric: There's the door You know what its there for. Normalize away, I say to the world. "Drink bulimicly; It's normal". "Uh yeah, sure. Thanks anyway". Normalizing = complaining about something that I don't like and then claiming that there's a secret conspiracy of normalization that's out to get me. You can just not like something and leave it at that.

Agreed. I am just such a person. Every last person in my family has addiction issues. But a lot people also have limited mobility. Reasonable accommodation should be made for them. Should all staircases be replaced with ramps? The Mormon pub bore says as much -"you want stairs? Why?". While it's fun to make fun of him, I'd be curious as to what life experiences led him to such an absolutist opinion.

Get down on your knees and thank god that you live in Cheapskate Paradise with friendly locals.

Please don't drink and drive. You might spill some.

In my native New York City, the sewage is prized as an ingredient for fertilizer due to the exotic and varied diets of sophisticated Manhattanites. They use that fertilizer in Central Park. Obv. all sewage is treated. I agree that just taking a dump under a mighty oak tree and congratulating myself is a bad idea. I know this because I applied for a job as a staff analyst for The Parks Department. But a little voice kept whispering to me: "You can do better". But could I? I'd just be looking at an excrement report computer printout and then writing up a summary that no one would ever read. It's not like I'd be out there with a shovel. I was a licensed investment advisor and dealt with all kinds of people. If people can't tolerate ANY risk, they shouldn't invest. If people believe a Masonic Conspiracy led by George Soros is rigging the stock market "game" against them, they shouldn't invest. If they're willing to accept an occasional 5-10% lost that will certainly make itself back in the short term to get a minimum 4-5% after tax income stream, there are plenty of model portfolio's on the internet to look at.

Future post to look forward to: Me (sane person) - "I'm not a tree frog, OK? I'm just not". Would-be Mormon -"Ha! that's just EXACTLY what a sneaky, indolent, leaf-munching tree frog would say. I gotcha and I gotcha good. Stop lobbying for tree frogs".

A lot of people say they aren't racist BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT RACIST. Again, you're wholly dishonest. They don't necessarily "spend most of their time" asserting this. They just assert that they're not racist. If a leg-humping control freak follows them around hissing at them demanding non-racism proof, they might engage for laughs. For you, mere disagreement means "lobbying".

double post, couldn't cancel it. At least, not with my tremerous, shake hands.

This is hilariously dishonest and huffily repeating it over and over again like some kind of (possibly Mormon) incantation doesn't make it any less so. Whenever a pedant intones ponderously about "society" to make their spurious and self-serving point, you know you're dealing with someone who's claiming a macro-view that they thought up in the shower. It's vacuous moral posturing Other people can certainly "envision" a life without alcohol. However, they very reasonably disagree with you. . That's not down to a failure of their intelligence or an inclination to end up like the drunk in A Rake's Progress. Some people, for example, do end up a degenerate gamblers, but the vast majority just like to buy a lotto ticket once in a while. People simply use the eyes that God gave them, look around, and see people enjoying a glass of chianti with their pizza and not falling into a swirling vortex of mental ruin, sudden death, or hobo lifestyle. Only you -you alone in the universe- think this. Next up: a non-pub pub bore fearlessly confronts someone who's eating an ice cream cone: "You do real-uh-ize that you're spiking you're blood sugar, don't you? What's wrong with you? What's wrong with Society? What kind of death-dealing conspiracy is 7/11 perpetrating? Why won't anyone listen to me?".

This is a human monster who thinks that a guy who has mop out a Weatherspoon's Pub on a Saturday night shouldn't have a pint afterwards. Even Trump and Hitler would disagree. Tea totalers both, BTW. Can we at least get some agreement on the range of mops-issue?

I was google-imaging and I came across a super hot old GF who was 6 years younger than me who now looks like my Mom. It really put a spring in my walk.

I think I need Drain-o.

I think you're underestimating the pleasure of greatly increased ear wax too. Twice a year, I go to a doctor by Tapie Gate to get a pea-sized globule suctioned out of each ear -even tho it costs more than having a former bar hostess scrape it out with a toothpick in a beauty parlor. "Let me see it", I insist. Then everyone in the office comes over for a happily disgusted look. That's out there for you too.

A capitalist invention? Cue end of the world music. How can this bullet be (soberly) dodged?

On the other hand, Mormonism is one of the few venue's where a guy who's a 4 can get with a (white) woman who's an 8. So live your dream, dullsville Naysayer! If I didn't like a drink now and again, I would have never met the mop-guy -who was 100% right about the need for multiple mops in a Weatherspoon's franchise. What is your crazy-quilt world offering me that's even in that ballpark?

I lived in rural England for 8 years, and while many disdain the lovable brit character known as the pub bore, I always had some time for them. There was a guy in my dank, chav-dive who would go on about how you need the "propah" mop for each clean up job. Possibly a relation of yours? You are a pub bore without the pub. Color me awed. More, please more.

I respect your point of view, but I don't think the kids have said "cool" since Boy George had radio hits.