A quiet Sunday at home

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Last week Jack tries to explain to Mu what’s happened. Whatever. This week, Willie and Tommy decide they can come to the rescue.

Current edition. Cover by Colin Cotterill

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • SCORE CARD. There have been 16 elections in Thailand since the Revolution of 1932. During the same time, there have been 14 coups—and that’s only counting the successful ones. Meanwhile the man in the street’s reaction to new governments, no matter where
… Read more

Pandemic digital bugs

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Smartwatch dementia

If her Polar smartwatch tells her she slept like a baby last night, Sara asks, how can she feel the way she feels this morning?

I’ve had similar experiences with my Apple smartwatch. One morning it will report, on the basis of four different measures, I should be all bushy tailed and ready to rock, never mind I can hardly drag my butt to the teapot. The next morning it claims I had no “deep sleep” at all, … Read more

Good help is hard to find these days

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In the last chapter, Jack had dinner and a few drinks with Fat Fat.

Some previous editions
Current edition. Cover by Colin Cotterill

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • KEEPING UP. Old men are often moved to appreciate younger women. In spirit, at least, they are often so moved — the flesh sometimes needs kick-starting. To this end an enormous trade in everything from ginseng to snake bile to deer antler and rhino horn flourishes all over
… Read more

Gooney birds, God and godawful long nights

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The noted etymologist J.B.S. Haldane, perhaps more of a wag than most of his ilk, famously suggested that “The Creator, if He exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” So I noted in an earlier post (Japanieces, tilefish and things ).

Now we can add the following to our list of God’s attributes. We also have good reason to believe He laughs at gooney birds. Some commentators prefer to suggest He laughs with them, seeing as how He … Read more

A dinner invitation

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This week Fat-Fat invites Jack to a nice dinner.

bookSiam edition (out of print)
Amazon edition here

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • GLUTTONY. Everybody’s talking about runaway corruption, but exactly what is this thing? The Thais call being ‘on the take’ kin, which is the same as ‘eat.’ Now, it might be a mistake to confuse real corruption with kin tham nam, which is only the traditional ‘eating,’ where you offer public officials a kind
… Read more

Pandemic lockdown bright sides? No.

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So has my Muse fled the scene forever, or is she merely suffering pandemic burnout?

Psychologists are reporting a rise in “pandemic burnout” as many people find the current phase of lockdowns harder, with an increasing number feeling worn out and unable to cope.

The Guardian

So here I’ve parked, this past year, largely confined to home with computers and ideas for books on all sides, shielded from such distractions as a social life. Liberally supplied with food, water, tea … Read more

TAKING CHARGE

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Last week Mu did what she could to bulletproof Jack, given his tendency to annoy the wrong people. This week Jack hears from yet someone else he’s just a babe in the woods.

DK Books 2nd ed. Current edition here


Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • THAT’LL TEACH HER. After all this time the oil-shares chit-fund scandal has resurfaced in the popular media. Mae Chamoy has been sentenced to 143,965 years in prison and fined four billion baht.
… Read more

Global panacea: Shift into virtual realities?

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As predicted, the worlds described in MOM and Genesis 2.0 lie just down the road. I wrote this “science fiction” in full knowledge it might soon be better described as history. And I was right. Consider the exponential advances of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and nanotech; see what transformations they have already wrought. 

Read the MAGIC CIRCLES novels for a preview of how the human condition might soon be further shaped, for example, by a global pandemic — one far … Read more

A trip to the market

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This week Jack tries to undo some of the damage he has done to himself. Meanwhile, Mu does what she can to bulletproof him against any and all of life’s slings and arrows.

Kicking Dogs available now

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • NO PROBLEM. According to reliable reports, more than 40% of Bangkok’s citizenry is now on tranquillizers of one sort or another. 
  • NO MORE LAND OF SMILES? What happens if officialdom ever decides to enforce the
… Read more

A la mode du jour

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Aphorism du jour (hot off the press)

One good thing about blogging: you can present nearly any proposition you like, and nowhere is it written you must provide hard evidence to support it. 

So I’ll let the following rip just because I’m in the mood and because I don’t have to please academic supervisors or my mother or anybody.

A few weeks ago we saw how our preferred books, movies, music and choices of underwear, rather than being determined by … Read more