MangoZeen

This week the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Games was lit in Olympia, Greece. Several pro-Tibetan demonstrators disrupted the Chinese spokesman’s celebratory speech. Police bundled away the two Tibetan and its procession ran through the ancient Greek town without incident, until more protests against the 60 years of Chinese repression. Greek police physically restrained […]

I’m 55 and this afternoon I was listening to Jefferson’s Airplane’s SOMEBODY TO LOVE on Pattaya’s notorious Soi 6. The trio of sub-20 Thai girls wanted me to visit an upstairs short-time room. “You sexy man. How old you. 40?”
Even through beer goggles my mirror doesn’t lie more than 49.
My wife thinks I’m ancient, however […]

Supposedly people tell lies at least 13 times a day and that’s not counting the ones we tell ourselves. Sometimes we tell the same lie so much that it becomes the truth. Pattaya is filled with foreigners re-inventing their pasts to suit their present personae. My history of nightclubs, diamond-dealing, and women is well-documented, however […]

Someone once wrote that you know you’ve been in Thailand too long when everythng you own is a fake. Fake Adidas, fake watches, fake DVDs, and fake CDs. I admit my guilt as well since my wallet can’t justify paying 400 baht for a CD that costs 100 baht as a counterfeit. Neither could Tony’s […]

Several villages in Thailand’s Ang Thong province have reported a plague striking household cats dead. The cats basically starved to death and locals are now scared that this ‘cat fever’ or ‘kai-wat me-ow’ could spread to the human population. Medical authorities have found no threat, but cannot explain the fatal phenomena affecting over 300 cats.

Birds, […]

2bangkok.com always has some interesting information for Thailand and the world. This weekend they entered ‘world’s worst intersections onto the website.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/03/worlds-worst-intersections-traffic-jams.html
And the photos attached to this URL tell the same story.
Roads weren’t built for speed.
In 1960 Boston claimed the Southeast Expressway wouldn’t reach traffic capacity until 1990. Within a year the 6-lane highway was bumper-to-bumper […]

My wife’s father sleeps in a wooden hut in the middle of his rice paddies. Den didn’t grow a rice crop this year. Instead he watches over his 15 cattle worth 15,000 baht each. 225,000 bath on the hoof for the teams of cattle rustlers ranging over Thailand’s central plains to take advantage of a […]

What can I say about Evel?
In 1956 he was fired from the Anaconda Mining Company for executing a wheelie in a earth-mover, which struck a power line and thus plunged Butte, Montana into a seven hour black-out.

For a related article click on this URL
http://www.mangozeen.com/open-road-for-heroes.htm

Five years have passed since GW Bush ordered the US military to invade Iraq with its Coalition of the Willing. The war was won in a matter of weeks. It’s been the peace that has been so elusive and yesterday 4 US soldiers were killed in an unexpected flare of violence, pushing the fatal body […]

That September morning a jet roared above the East Village. I opened my eyes. Lots of planes and helicopters flew over Manhattan. None this low or fast or loud. Thirty seconds later the windows shook with a muffled thud more a boom than a crash. It wasn’t too far away either.

The screaming children in the […]