Bangkok Gay Club Collapse

In 1985 I worked at La Nouvelle Reve off the Grand Boulevard in Paris. The interior was tres kitsch with red tables lit by royalist dioramas. Our clientele hailed from the well-heeled 16th arrondisement. Most of our guests aspired to nobility, but regicide had died out in France with the decapitation of Louis XVII. Terrorists targeted more modern symbols of repression in one April night a bomb exploded in the Bank Leumi. The force of the detonation threw the entrance of the Nouvelle Eve onto the dance floor. Thankfully we were closed and remained closed until repairs we made by our construction crew from the French Army.

They were working off the books.

The club was never the same.

This week in Bangkok a building collapsed on Soi Gay nearly destroying the infamous Balcony Club. The time was 4pm. No one was injured by the avalanche of debris. The balcony's adjoining wall is under stress, but the management says there is no danger to their clientele.

Living with danger is so sexy.

TO FORGIVE AND FORGET by Peter Nolan Smith

After my youngest brother died of AIDS, I traveled to the holiest shrines in Asia. The ancient temples salved little of my grief and I switched to worshipping the high heels of the go-go girls. Vee danced at the Baby A Go-Go in Pattaya. She had one eye. We had an affair. The word ‘love’ was traded between us many times. My money ran out before Christmas and a 747 flew me back to the States. My vow to return was a lie. Friends phoned to say she was seeing an Englishman. It seemed better that way.
A year later I took a plane to Thailand. The taxi ride from Bangkok lasted two hours. I stayed at the same hotel. A knock sounded on the door. It wasn’t room service. Vee hadn’t changed much physically, but told me she had AIDS. I said I would help. We went up country to see her baby. She said it could have been mine.

The math didn’t work out, but I was glad that the child was healthy.

The farm had prospered. Vee and I slept in the same bed. She wanted me to hold her. We did nothing else. The next morning I looked for water. No medicine filled the refrigerator. Vee put the child on my lap. She had told her lovers the same story. It had been a test.

I was the only one who passed this exam. The memory of my brother stopped my strangling her. The baby cried as I packed my bags. Vee asked if I was angry. My answer was a weak no and I caught the next bus out of town. Forgetting her lie was much easier in Pattaya as was everything else, because life is too short not to forgive and forget.

Map of Misery USA

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When I was driving through Florida, I was astounded by the number of 'for sale' signs throughout the state. Very few in Palm Beach though. However the real winner for real estate disaster is California with Salinas winning thanks to over 40% of re-financed mortgages.

Opps.

I was speaking to my real estate guys in New York and the Hamptons and they said business was non-existent.

"Only those with small monthly nuts will survive." one broker said who owns his house in the Hamptons straight out.

Chaos extraordinaire.

Gimme Gimme

My good friend Keith Raywood sent this letter from Progressive Review (www.prorev.com)

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Thailand Fundamental Sound

Thailand's government has pronounced that the country';s financial institutions are quite capable of handling the present economic chaos, although their confidence sounds eerily like GW Bush's declaring, "The US economy is fundamentally sound."

The SET has fallen 30% in 2008 as foreign investors cash in their portfolios to shore up their homeland investment.

That money has gone poof in the last few months like water on a frying pan.

Beware of sound economies.

Even the bar girls are hurting.

Pattayaone.net

www.pattayaone.net reports the news from Pattaya with an eye for the sensational. Car crashes, murder, thefts, drug arrests, suicide, and even a berserk elephant. Certainly makes out Pattaya as a scary destination for the casual travelers, but then all this sells ads.

My father stopped buying any newspapers.

"All they print is bad news. If I want to see bad news all I have to do is drive my car, so why waste money on a newspaper."

My old man is more right than he is wrong.

He believes in good news.

Thai-Nigerian Connection

Those pesky 419 Nigerian scammers are at it again. I wish they would check their spelling occasionally. It's almost as bad as mine.

From:Mrs.Pojaman Shinawatra
Bangkok-Thailand
Email:mrspojaman@gmail.com
Dear,
I am Mrs.Pojaman Shinawatra the wife of Mr. Takshin Shinawatra the ex-prime Minister of Thailand who is currently being tried in Thailand. Most importantly the current Leadership has put a search light on my Family business activities thus the reason why we are looking for a person outside Thailand to act as our proxy and invest the hedge fund he left behind in a financial institution in Europe .
We need a capable person that can keep the transaction confidential and at the same time has the capability of pulling $150m from the institution where the funds are lodged.
If you are sure you can be honest and trustworthy to handle the investment, then send your letter of intent so that we can discuss the terms and draw up an agreement via our Representative before you can proceed to claim the funds for investment.
Due to the sensitivity of the transaction, we will require topmost confidentiality all through the transaction.
Awaiting your response via my confidential email id:mrspojaman@gmail.com
Regards
Mrs.Pojaman Shinawatra.

Beware of 419 to read more about this scam see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud