On 2/26/2026 at 9:07 AM, JensenZ said:

You're judging the quality of a lady by the unfortunate tragedy of having a brother murdered randomly on the streets of Bangkok.

23 hours ago, 123Stodg said:

The way you wrote the sentence, “I was dating a woman who had a brother murdered in the streets of Bangkok,” could be misunderstood as meaning that she arranged for her brother to be killed.

I thought the message was pretty clear. You misquoted JensenZ by omitting the key word 'randomly'. If the brother was murdered 'randomly' on the street, that does not implicate the sister at all of having it arranged.

I disagree with you regarding safety in the Phillipines.I was walking down a busy street to Jolibbee for lunch with my wife at 1pm and suddenly felt something jab me in my back. It was a gun and she pushed the robber out of the way and we kept walking That was in Ermita Manila.There were many occasions in the Philipines where I did not feel safe but I consider to be ver

On 2/25/2026 at 12:57 PM, BritManToo said:

Philippines just as safe as everywhere else.

Phone snatchers on m/cs in Phnom Penh if you stand near the road.

I disagree with you regarding safety in the Phillipines.I was walking down a busy street to Jolibbee for lunch with my wife at 1pm and suddenly felt something jab me in my back. It was a gun and she pushed the robber out of the way and we kept walking That was in Ermita Manila.There were many occasions in the Philipines where I did not feel safe but I consider to be ver

10 minutes ago, wavodavo said:

15 minutes ago, wavodavo said:

I disagree with you regarding safety in the Phillipines.I was walking down a busy street to Jolibbee for lunch with my wife at 1pm and suddenly felt something jab me in my back. It was a gun and she pushed the robber out of the way and we kept walking That was in Ermita Manila.There were many occasions in the Philipines where I did not feel safe but I consider to be ver

I was staying at at 3-star hotel in Malate and struck up a conversation with the head of hotel security about safety. In our discussion he mentioned that there was an armed robbery at the Hilton, in the hotel elevator.

Aged 84, worked on 4 continents before retiring permanently to Thailand in 1993. Mugged twice in my life, once in Metro Manila, Philippines, once in Blackheath, South London, UK.

In reality you can get robbed or mugged in any city in any country but in the case of Manila there are thousands of desperate people with no job and no money and no hope that have come in from the province that are homeless or living in humpys along a railway line or in parks etc. their desperation means that if they are baulked they will use guns or knives or any other means in order to succeed. I consider Thailand to be very safe.

7 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Aged 84, worked on 4 continents before retiring permanently to Thailand in 1993. Mugged twice in my life, once in Metro Manila, Philippines, once in Blackheath, South London, UK.

On 2/26/2026 at 10:00 PM, 123Stodg said:

Quite a bit of what people post on here is fiction. And much of what people write is for effect, to conjure a reaction, or to be sarcastic or humorous. Windups, as they are known. So I never believe any of it, nor do I ever spend a moment trying to work out whether something someone wrote is fiction or not. Some people also have strange senses of humor that I often do not understand, so I cannot always judge whether someone is trying to be funny or serious based solely on written words. In fact, whether it is fact or fiction does not even matter to me. It is the meaning that I focus on more.

So for me, it was never about whether your story about a girlfriend who had her brother murdered was true or not. I did not give that a second thought, and I have no way of knowing whether it is true. What caught my attention was how you worded it, and that is why I pointed out that I can understand why another poster could misinterpret the meaning.

You have already said that wording the sentence differently would have prevented any ambiguity, so we are past that. My only real point is simply not to assume everyone will automatically recognise something as too incredulous to be true, especially if it is not worded clearly. It is better to be more careful with one’s words if you do not want them to be misinterpreted.

Cheers...

Good advice, especially the part about being "more careful with one’s words if you do not want them to be misinterpreted." You might want to look up the meaning of "incredulous" in a dictionary, however... 🙄

On 2/26/2026 at 10:00 PM, 123Stodg said:

Quite a bit of what people post on here is fiction. And much of what people write is for effect, to conjure a reaction, or to be sarcastic or humorous. Windups, as they are known. So I never believe any of it, nor do I ever spend a moment trying to work out whether something someone wrote is fiction or not. Some people also have strange senses of humor that I often do not understand, so I cannot always judge whether someone is trying to be funny or serious based solely on written words. In fact, whether it is fact or fiction does not even matter to me. It is the meaning that I focus on more.

So for me, it was never about whether your story about a girlfriend who had her brother murdered was true or not. I did not give that a second thought, and I have no way of knowing whether it is true. What caught my attention was how you worded it, and that is why I pointed out that I can understand why another poster could misinterpret the meaning.

You have already said that wording the sentence differently would have prevented any ambiguity, so we are past that. My only real point is simply not to assume everyone will automatically recognise something as too incredulous to be true, especially if it is not worded clearly. It is better to be more careful with one’s words if you do not want them to be misinterpreted.

Cheers...

You obviously do care, as you went to lengths to explain it to me twice, and apologise for the obscene response from a twisted member who was trying to be funny.

Although it is possible, if taken in the literal sense, to mean that a gf had contracted some people to carry out the murder of her brother on the streets of Bangkok, and cover it up as a random robbery/murder... and then tell me all about it.

That is so utterly inconceivable that no person would seriously consider this as the actual meaning. As I said, context is important, and in this case, would have solved the ambiguity and saved you the trouble of offering a lesson in sentence structure.