MangoZeen

 
Short Story published on MR.BELLER’S NEIGHBORHOOD 0CT. 2004
Every high tide deposited beer bottles, oil containers, fishing lines, shiny candy wrappers, and plastic bags onto the sloping shoreline of Pattaya. At low tide I harvested the trash into sea-worn rice bags. Within a half-hour the sand was devoid of any human refuse and I could smugly regard […]

When I first came to Asia, I thought bread wouldn’t pass my lips until my round-the-world ticket brought me to the baguettes of Paris. I was wrong.
In Biak the end of the world where the sea mirrored a flat blue sky, the Javanese store sold bread. As white as Wonderbread. Soft and squishy. Malaysia had roti. […]

In Tennessee Williams’ CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF the character Big Daddy announces after hearing his heirs fight over his will and testament, “Oh, the mendacity.”
Whenever the Catholic Church gets involved in the course of human events, you can bet sooner or later that you can paraphrase the classic line with. “Oh, the hypocrisy.”
Case […]

Personally I have nothing against ka-toeys.
I’ve always liked them as defenders against the status quo.
Ka-toeys, travelos, gender benders et al.
“You gonna hide behind a lady’s dress?”
Bullies have confronted effeminate males with this accusation for ages.
“Yeah, I’ll hide behind a dress and clock you with my high heels.
Queens have said this and act accordingly. “Knock the m-f […]

The Thai Festival of Loi Krathong is celebrated every year on the full moon of the 12th lunar month. Millions of Thais flock to rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs, and the sea to launch a Krathong as a sign of respect to Ganga, the river goddess. Up north in Chiang Mai Khon loi or fire lanterns […]

November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week’s
election. You’re worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don’t want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. […]

Whenever I hit a economic downturn, I review my employment options.
Driver in Iraq - life expectancy 3 weeks.
Go-go boy at a Pattaya Boytown bar - fired for being too old.
Joining the priesthood - excommunicated for not vowing to abuse altar boys.
The deposed Prime Minister of Thailand is in a similar position.
Past his best years and without a job.
Recently […]

Erica Jong immortalized sex in an airplane in her 1973 novel FEAR OF FLYING.

The book sold 12 million copies.
Airline stewardesses were sexual icons.
Young, thin, and friendly.
The skies were our friends.
All changed after 9/11 and recently a couple was arrested for violating the Patriot Act by being a little too intimate for the Puritanism of a Southwest […]

Steve McQueen was the coolest movie star ever.
Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood are icons, but Steve was the real thing.
My Catholic school showed THE GREAT ESCAPE.
He was that cool.
See ON ANY SUNDAY.
And today his sunglasses sold at auction for $70,000.
I always wanted a hair cut like his.
How cool.
See PAPILLION. He steamrollers Dustin Hoffman.
In THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN he […]

On Tuesday the American electorate gave what GW Bush later said in his hick accent, “We got a ’thumpin’.”
Pundits at Fox News were stunned by the setback, but the GOP was infuriated by the President’s announcement that Don Rumsfeld was ‘cutting and running’ from his post as Secretary of Defense, since only last week GW had […]