Category Archives: superstitions

Collect Call to the After-Life

Published 2016 This summer my brother visited me in a dream. My deceased mother and I were sitting in a ramshackle cottage on Cape Cod. My brother said he was going to meet friends. He looked happy, as he ran out the door. It was a little too short, but I was happy to see […]

Thai White Elephant

Many Asian cultures regarded fatness as a sign of wealth, however with the advent of 7/11 consumerism in the Orient obesity is fast becoming a health issue for the region. The Thais like to joke about fat people, whom they call ‘chang-nois’ or little elephants. “Why are farangs so fat?” An old rice farmer asked […]

Lightning Strike More Than Once 2008

Songkran signals the approach of the rainy season. The collision of wet warm fronts with hot dry fronts stimulate epic lightning storms. My girlfriend always insisted on shutting off every electrical device in the house other than the fans. Thais shiver in fear of a lightning strike with good reason. Everyone knew someone who had […]

Maundy Thursday

In 1977 I lived in Park Slope with James Spicer. The silver-haired jazz impressario representing several jazz stars only charged me $120 for a room in the spacious townhouse. We drank up the street at the Gaslight Pub. James thrived on the streetwise clientele and I sparred with a Frenchman for pinball supremacy. Michel the […]

The Roam of Ghosts

My youngest son talks about phee or ghosts. Fenway is not scared of these spirits, but he doesn’t want to go to certain houses on our soi in Sri Racha, since the four-year-old sees birds with voices. His mother thinks that he has the 6th sense. Mam says that she is not frightened by ghosts. […]