PeterRS

Name those ultra-distinctive male voices from stage and screen and the numbers are few. Richard Burton is arguably the first name that will come to mind. Sir John Gielgud. James Earl Jones and perhaps Sean Connery for his Scottish burr! In our more recent times, unquestionably at the top of my list would have been Alan Rickman who died ten years ago of pancreatic cancer. A stalwart of the British stage before his breakout movie role as the villain in the first Die Hard movie, from the Judge in the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, the bewitching Perfume; the Story of a Murderer, with the young gay actor Ben Whishaw, through the role that most around the world will recall, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, his voice was unmistakable - a deep, rich, glowing, sometimes growling voice with, whenever required, a hint of menace. What we did not know was much about the actor himself for, like many, he preferred to remain in the background. In today's Guardian there is a lovely article with comments from a number of actors and others who worked with him including Sigourney Weaver, Brian Cox and screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary). It paints a portrait of an extraordinary human being. I think his last performance in Eye In The Sky one of his best. A world weary British army general utterly torn between his men seeking to kill terrorists far off in Kenya by means of drone strikes and his political masters who cannot make a decision. With the objective finally obliterated although with the additional cost of civilians, as he leaves the cabinet room one parliamentarian tells him the casualties were just part of war. To which his character turns and stares equally wearily at the lady before his final line. It could have been said angrily, menacingly in any number of ways. Rickman says it in an almost matter-of-fact way but you can hear the hate lurking in that voice. "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war." He was literally dying when he completed that movie. A few comments (deliberately unattributed) - - Whenever he’d ring me on speakerphone in my car and someone else was with me their eyes would nearly pop out of their head. That amazing voice! The depth and richness and enunciation. - Alan elevated friendship to an art form. His friends grew in number throughout his extraordinary career but he never dropped his old pals in favour of more starry ones. - He taught me a great deal about charity [said by one of the boys in Harry Potter]. He would often have half a dozen people visit the studio each day, and would claim they were his cousins or friends. Really, he was offering terminally ill children and their families a chance to see behind the curtains. - His death was such a theft from us; this brilliant, gorgeous actor, who had so much more to give, was suddenly gone. Although I was one of the close friends who was privy to Alan’s illness and visited him as he faded, I could not reconcile myself to his absence . . . Alan was undoubtedly one of Britain’s greatest actors. His distinctive languid voice and his sublime ability to embody the characters he played made him truly exceptional. - The most loving, generous man in the world, with such charm he made everyone weak at the knees. Such wit, such a sense of humour and kindness that surpassed anything I had ever witnessed before. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/14/i-fell-in-love-with-him-on-the-spot-alan-rickman-remembered-10-years-after-his-death

The basic concept may have come from Japan but if you are used to Jomtien host bars, don't go anywhere near one in Japan. The reason is twofold. First the best known Tokyo ones are in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district where they are virtually all for young girls. More importantly, you'll need several credit cards and thousands in the bank - of $$ not ¥! The whole point of these bars is not to get close to a girl outside the confines of the bar and not to have sex with the customers - although both occasionally happen. The aim is to develop a relationshp with a girl who will come back to spend time and oodles of cash on booze with you as often as possible. As a host on one youtube video says "These bars are creating Disneyland for customers and they end up believing they need to revolve their whole lives around this Disneyland." This vdo below has been included in these columns before. So it is slightly out of date. It features the No. 1 host in Japan about 7 years ago, but the principle is exactly the same today. The video starts off with the host arriving at his bar in a new white Lamborghini, a present from a customer. Cost? Probably around US$370,000! He makes tons of cash every month from commissions on the huge mark-ups on premium booze. One 19-year old girl who technically cannot drink alcohol in Japan gladly tells the camera that the most expensive bottle of booze she bought in the bar was a Magnum Decanter of Louis XIII Cognac. For this she paid US$110 - in cash!

That I would have "fun" starting a very important discussion for men on the very serious subject of circumcision rather illustrates how you go about writing your frequently barely intelligible posts. You're clearly having fun in your own little world.

Yes, it's bad in Thailand but it is not confined to the rich and powerful. It is endemic. Go around the country and you will discover examples almost everywhere. I doubt if you can divide corruption into the bad and the less bad (is palming a few red bills to an underpaid traffic cop to avoid a traffic ticket corrupt?) but throughout much of Thailand's history those in villages have more or less had to look after themselves. A dependency grows among communities. Put at its simplest, I guess, almost an I scratch your back, you scratch mine mentality develops. Wth democracy it has got much worse amongst the elite and the mega-rich. Against that you have sometimes amazing acts of generosity. It hardly feels like more than seven years since those 12 young boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a northern cave for 17 days. In order to attempt to free them, a massive amount of water had to be pumped out of the cave system. The only place it could go was into the fields of local villagers thereby destroying their crops. The government offered the farmers compensation. All refused it. So many people from all over the globe were participating in the hoped for rescue, they said. The farmers also wanted to help. But Thailand is only one Asian country where corruption is rife. Economically speaking The Philippines has been repeatedly raped by a clutch of ruling families who have become mega-wealthy. Endemic corruption has ruled for decades at the head of Japan's supposedly squeaky-clean government. Hong Kong was virtually a cess-pit of corruption until the government introduced a fully Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (ICAC) with its own police and judiciary in the mid-1970s. Suddenly some of the big players fled the city, including a Chief Justice whose nickname was Brenda, top lawyers, high-placed police officers and civil servants. It quickly cleaned up Hong Kong. Not squeaky clean since major corruption cases still feature in the headlines - but only very occasionally. At the turn of the century when a local newspaper did a poll of Hong Kong residents asking them to nominate the ten best things to have happened in the territory during the previous century. The establishment of the ICAC came in around 6 or 7.

There has now been a second fatal crash, with yet another crane crashing to the ground. This time on an expressway construction in Samut Sakhon not far from Bangkok. This time a crane collapsed on to a highway. Two dead so far. Death toll in the earlier crash involving the train stands at 32 according to the BBC website as of about three hours ago. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20g7n7yd9do

Oh, my goodness! Who would have known? Do you now expect us to bow before you since you are obviously so clever - but clearly just amongst a certain specified group of people! Rabbit away!

That's bullshit! I listed continents merely for convenience as is perfectly obvious to all except @Riobard. If he wants a list of all countries he'd be the last person to read it! The vast majority of doctors in the USA is going to continue to prescribe circumcision for various reasons, medical and otherwise, and then lining their pockets when they issue the bills for their services. Earlier you write - And you had the gall to quote proportionality! When a President or some other person wins a vote involving hundreds of millions of people, the winning percentile is usually in the 0.5% to 5% or so, rarely higher. Yet with a propoortion of over 20% against circumcision worldwide and with at least one million of those in the "pro" camp electing for the procedure on religious or cultural grounds, you consider this has yet to yield a consensus? Well! Well! Well! Better advise the dictionary compilers of the new meaning of concensus!

Haha! @Olddaddy on the vengeance trail! It will become a predictable pattern.

Allegedly it's already started. The Construction Company came out quickly and said compensation would immediately be offered. But what can compensate for the loss of a young life? And how much will be offered. Pretty much a pittance is my guess. It reminds me of that hit-and-run murder of a traffic policeman on Sukhumvit at 5:00 in the morning. He had ben driving at over 100 kph and found to have drugs and alcohol in his system. The driver was eventually apprehended after his mega-rich Yoovihaya family had ried to persuade the authorities that one of the family's drivers had actually been at the wheel - of a Ferrari? Estimates are the car was being driven at 174 kph. The policeman's body was dragged for over 100 meters. The driver was Vorayuth Yoovihaya whose grandfather had been in at the start of the Red Bull empire and was one of Thailand's richest men. For 8 years he failed to turn up to scheduled court hearings on his arrest warrant, yet at the same time was seen galivanting around the world by means of a private jet. He was even seen in Thailand more than once. 12 years after the event, the Justice Department finally got around to jailing just seven functionaries. As a Bangkok Post article wrote on 1 April 1917 - The boss walks free. The boss is the boss. The boss dines in France and snow­boards in Ja­pan. The boss rules the road and tram­ples the law. In the pyra­mid of priv­i­lege, the boss stays on top. In the food chain of in­jus­tice . . . The degree of corruption in this case is mind-boggling. It had Thai social media up in arms several times. But this is Thailand - one law for the rich, one for the poor and tourists. The statute of limitations on all of those crimes has long passed. Freedom for that family was a matter of pennies! And Thailand's rich look after themselves. That is why inner city expresways are carved up amongst several companies. Not for the sake of economy - not a bit of it. Purely so that more poiticians and others can get their hands on a decent chunk of the profits. As for the poor widow of the murdered policeman, Wichian Klanprasert, and her children? The maximum the family was prepared to offer was Bt. 3 million, this for the life of a 47 year old Police Sergeant Major and given on condition the grieving widow did and her children not bring any form of criminal charges against members of the Yoovihaya family - yet another mega-injustice.

I'm not saying we should now be quaking in our flip flops. Merely that we should be aware of surroundings at all times. I suppose that actually applies to every situation but especially if you are in a place likely to be filmed by some and you do not want others to see what might just go somewhere on the internet.

In the meantime, the camera still has your face on it prior to your noticing it and going up to put your hand on it. In fact it is likely to have a close up of your face! Not concerned? Unless you mean outright sex, given the developments of the last ten years, is it not likely that some click-bait idiot is going to extend the boundaries and eventually start a more detailed "expose" of the gay business? Sadly I'd put money on it!

Yesterday afternoon a construction crane working on an overhead railway collapsed and fell onto a moving train below. The train was en route from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani and was quite close to its destination. Passengers were mostly students and manual workers. 32 were killed and 66 others injured. After being crushed, some carriages caught fire. 171 were aboard the train. Local outlet The Nation reported that the incident occurred while the crane was lifting a large concrete section which dropped on to the train, causing several coaches to derail . . . "Accidents like this can only happen due to negligence, skipped steps, deviations from the design, or the use of incorrect materials," [Prime Minister] Anutin said. The crane was being used to build an overhead railway that is part of a US$5.4bn (£4bn) China-backed project to link Bangkok with neighbouring Laos, where a Chinese-built high-speed line is already running to south-western China . . . It seems that the Italian-Thai Development company was in charge of that section of the overhead railway construction. Typically in Thailand major infrasructure projects are farmed out among various companies as a number of politicians are always involved in parcelling out the land. Corruption has always payed its part! One of Thailand's biggest contractors, the company was responsible for the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed last March during an earthquake. Last year the company's president and several designers and engineers were charged with professional negligence over that incident. Some have denied wrongdoing. The Chinese embassy in Thailand said that no Chinese construction companies or workers were involved in the collapse, Chinese state media reported. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqz7v1507ro

I'm not going to do any heavy lifting for anyone, particularly @Riobard whose posts seem to require some sort of parallel understanding of English to understand what they mean. It's all very well posting what seems like a form of gibberish when in fact, once you dig down - do many posters have that available time? - there is more than a modicum of sense. Africa can do what it wants when it comes to circumcision. The USA can do what it wants. It tried circumcision colonialism with South Korea and that is now dying on the vine. A very considerable majority of the world remains uncircumcised and for @unicorn even to suggest that those countries where it is not practiced and whose health authorities have made concious decisions after their own research not to promote it as indulging in BS is - well, quite frankly - BS of a pretty high order. Is any of these countries complaining? Only @unicorn complains.

I believe this is the case with this Board. Ten posts? That used to be the case and just asume it remains so.

I'm wondering if there is much difference between the Soi Twilight in Bangkok of old and JC in Pattaya now. I recall sitting at Dick's Cafe or after it closed outside one of the host bars near the entrance to Soi Twilight seeing people taking photos and no-one being concerned about it. Admittedly I'm talking about 6 years ago. I guess the main difference is that many of the venues in Twilight were indoors, but near the entrance to the soi there were several host bars. I sometimes saw tourists taking pics of the soi from Suriwong and not venturing inside. I assume they could then just show the photos to friends as Bangkok 'sights'. Is it more that JC has more volume? Why would a tourist be more concerned being seen with a boy in a JC bar but not seen in roughly similar circumstances in a Twilight bar a few years ago? There was quite a lot of fawning of customers in those host bars.

I'm not! And not just for the advent of mobile phones LOL.

Most of the river hotel and complexes have free boats. Never pay the touts.

Patrick Chan did not stick to piano music by one composer. His programmes included piano and orchestral works by Chopin, Vivaldi, Puccini and Rachmaninoff, probably among others.

At least @unicorn has ceased - no doubt temporarily - spouting a universal truth that is far from universal. Only in America!

Yet again you suggest that in America and with minimal numbers in other countries, the benefits far outweigh the risks. How anyone can expect that ridiculous suggestion to be fact when the vast majority of the non-religious non-cultural uncircumcisied world has decided for its own reasons that such comments are not invalid and circumcision does not factor into their thinking totally beats me and any and reasonable reader! You are perfectly entitled to undertake the procedure or have it undertaken on behalf of your American patients. But do not tell the rest of the world they are wrong! America may have around 80% of males circumcised, but Britain only has around 20% and in Europe as a whole considerably less. As I wrote earlier, South America has much less and much of Asia even less. Had it not been for Americans, South Korea would not even have known about circumcision until the Americna occupation! And you might even point out that even in the USA numbers are falling.

I agree Shae-Lynn Bourne is an excellent choreographer but we should recall that Jeffrey Buttle created most of Hanyu's short programmes. Hanyu's work with them and Brian Orser bordered on the spectacular, but then he is just such an amazing skater that oozes artistry. His short programme skated to one of Chopin's Ballades at Pyeongyang is the one of the greatest i have seen. Malinin's programme with poetry was also amazingI But I have little concern about the television commentary. I actually enjoy much of it, and to suggest it does not remark on elements of the choreography other than jumps is just not true. The artistry of a programme is frequently commented upon. Commentators do not comment generally on physical attractiveness. I happily do, though! Malinin surely has to win the gold this year. Hanyu might have won it for a third time in 2022 barring a slight hole in the ice which nixed one of his quad jumps during the short programme. It's a pity Nathan Chen is concentrating on his medical studies and will not be taking part this year.

What else would anyone expect an American to say - even though a large majority of the rest of the world completely disagrees with that conclusion.

I have heard about lack of sensitivity several times before, but how does anyone know unless a man has chosen - or been persuaded - to be circumcised after becoming sexually active. The Old Testament tells us Abraham was circumised at the age of 100. Pity he did not leave any notes on sensitivity or lack thereof! For Christians, circumcision was never prescribed and this goes as far back as the Apostle Paul and the New Testament. Indeed at the Council of Florence in the mid-15th century, the Roman Catholic Church specificallly forbade the practice. Going further back, the Greek and Roman civilisations were basically revolted by the idea. The much more modern practice got a major boost in the mid 19th century when a British physician Jonathan Hutchison was searching for either a cure or means to control the rampant spread of syphilis. He had noted that Jews in paricular had a lower incidence of syphilis. This led to the belief that circumcision was a major help and this view quickly spread to the USA. But another as comelling reason helped spread that popularity for the good people of the USA. Hurchison and his colleagues believed that absence of the foreskin would reduce the sensitivity of the organ and hence reduce the prevalence of masturbation in males. In his later 1893 article titled On Circumcision as a Preventive of Masturbation, he wrote - "I am inclined to believe that [circumcision] may often accomplish much, both in breaking the habit [of masturbation] as an immediate result, and in diminishing the temptation to it subsequently." This was prticularly appealing to certain US Churches which very quickly promoted circumcision amongst their members. Although I believe not true today, Hutchison continued to preach this 'doctine' for the next 50 years. 15 years after Hutchison, an American orthopedic surgeon Lewis Sayre latched on to this view about circumcision being effective in promoting good health. With the end of World War 2 and the establishment of the National Health Service in Britain, a 1949 article The Fate of the Foreskin by Douglas Gairdner in the UK argued that evidence showed the risks outweighed the benefits. In the USA however, the popular physician Benjamn Spock was an outspoken proponent of the procedure. His book The Comon Sense Book of Baby and Child Care led to a huge rise in demand from parents, all this while Europe was slowly turning away from circumcision and it had never caught on in Central and South America. I suppose it is not really possible to discuss circumcision without a note on religion. The Old Testament mentions it being an essential covenant between God and man. - hence its particular appeal to those of the Jewish faith. Trying not to be flippant about a serious subject, I wonder how excision of the foreskin can be regarded as an essential "covenant". Christianity has basically replaced this with baptism for two millannia. Yet in the same NT volume, the Book of Genesis mentions God creating man in his own image. Does this mean God had no foreskin? If not, why was man created with one? I have had little interest in religion but find much of its teachings, shall we say, strange.

Is this a reason for Rama IV being written Rama but pronounced Palam?

Before the Tawana Ramada, that hotel had been a Sheraton. It was one of the few where you had to pay for joiners. They had a table set up by the lifts manned by a flunky with a room list. He would then check your key against the list. Can't recall how much the joiner's fee was but I think quite substantial compared to bar off rates.