tomcat76

Company Policy -- horsefeathers. Pure tactics. I sued a prop'ty management outfit once, for about US$20K. They dragged things out for over a year, until finally the judge told them to settle by Friday or be in court 1st thing Monday. Sure enough a guy representing the co. called wanting to settle for about half what I was demanding. I said no. He said it was all he was "authorized" to offer. I said, "see you in court on Monday". 45 mins later they settled for the full amount (and I received every penny).

That at least is good news!

Yeah - with all that floodwater only slowly draining off, the mosquito population must be set to explode. 'Used to worry about dengue more in AC than in Thailand, but not this year.

I work in the business as well (don't necessarily claim to have ff's TCP/IP expertise), and it's just a given that practically speaking (if not absolutely) anonymity, like security, is a relative term on the Internet. Yes, like security, it can amount to a battle of resources (in other words, how well you cover your tracks vs how badly they want you), but the lengths to which an individual would have to go to hide himself from a determined enforcement effort would be beyond the means of anyone short of being state-sponsored (in which case there'd be no govt reciprocity or cooperation). So, if you're into, say, child porn - they'll find you. If you're disseminating classified govt docs - it depends (on the governments that might be involved), but you'd better be in a country with no extradition treaties... If you're operating a large-scale online criminal enterprise - once they decide they want you and are able to identify and allocate the needed resources, they'll get at least some of you. If you're just trying to hide online activity from you wife's divorce attorneys or a discovery order - if you're willing to do what it takes and aren't too big a fish you MIGHT get away with it (although the consequences of failure may be some hard time...). It's a question of staying beneath the radar, not of having access to some bullet-proof technology that will keep you concealed no matter what.

Totally on target. Cities and states, awakened from decades of financial slumber, now find themselves broke 3 times over because of ludicrous pension benefit concessions to public employee unions over the years. Taxpayers formerly sympathetic to and reliable supporters of these unions are now finally beginning to get it and are turning out policiticans who breathe anything about tax hikes to finance these benefits. The worm may just be turning... Oh, silly me! Did I just say "cities and states"? Certainly the federal govt itself is no exception. Talk about BROKE!

'Kind of far back (away from the "well-traveled path") isn't it?

Me too (but just barely...)

Isn't it wonderful how they can take whole countries hostage?

Thanks!

I have to pick this guy as it was a film about cars!!!! He got tyres in his name. (Tyres is UK spelling for tires) Tyrese Gibson] Flight of the Phoenix

What's the secret handshake to the CHAT section? The login page suggests that it's just looking for the same PT username & password used for the forums, but that's not accepted. If I click on the Create one 'Here' link (to create a new one), it just kicks me to the Members page of the main Forum (where I'm already logged in!).

Is their lounge open to all their passengers?

I think it's certainly true that some guys can eat almost anything and survive, others just plain have silk stomachs. I know what my limitations are in this respect. My question is: is there any degree of "resistance" you can get to the same food-born illness once you've encountered it? Even if not absolute, will a repeat performance with some of these bugs maybe not be as bad as the first time? Probably a stupid question. Chalk it up to wishful thinking. These bugs must be real deathstars though to be able to survive the acid environment of the human stomach. (And if you've ever had any acid reflux, you KNOW we're talking about real acid!)

Yeah - that sounds familiar. Well no complaints - it was just sort o' forgettable...

Funny, I've heard others (who happen to work in the restaurant trade usually...) make these same claims about how it takes 24-72 for a bout of food poisoning to kick in (thus lifting the blame from their own establishments, and pretty much making it impossible, if you buy it, to figure out WHERE the poisoning came from!), and it's just not so. Maybe not as little as 2 - but it can definitely come on in less than 24! 'Couple of years ago had a burger at a place in BKK (catering to a mainly farang crowd), WITH lettuce & tomato, I was foolish enough to eat the produce, and felt the symptoms beginning to come on only about 2 hours later while walking around up at the weekend market. By about the six hour mark, I was cramping up; and by the 10 hour mark in a whole lot of pain. It lasted through the night, and gradually let up during the course of the following day. No vomiting; no fever; no diarrhea - just really bad cramps. Same thing happened to me a couple of years later after eating a ham sandwich from a Mexican place in AC - onset was more gradual, cramping not quite as bad but longer lasting. Maybe personal biochemistry can have something to do with the onset rate, but I'm here to tell you that it DOESN'T have to take 72 hours! (And I only have to have or hear about a single encounter to cross a place off my list, ESPECIALLY if I start hearing about how it couldn't be THEM because it would take a few days!) Go ahead - say what you will - each reader has to decide for himself.

Dicey Rileys in front of the Marriott ... didn't that place used to have a different name? 'Had some chow in there last year (and can't even remember what it was - must've been something less than blue ribbon).

'Well, to about the same extent that most US high school graduates for the last 20 yrs haven't even been able to balance a checkbook I guess it's probably true they don't know about the burning of Washington during the War of 1812. (They learn about kwanzaa instead...) My generation was certainly taught about it. 'Must admit though, I thought it was British troops under one General Ross, not Canadians. What most members of even MY generation probably DON'T know is that many loyalist/Tory refugees from the colonies, dispossessed of their property during or after the American Revolution, immigrated to Canada and the Caribbean. So I'm sure there must've been some who joined up with the British forces during the War of 1812 for a little bit of payback.

So many Thai aces from the Franco-Thai war? The French were out-gunned in most respects, but still... Interesting. Sad that flooding may have (or has probably?) damaged this.

Passed right overhead at about 50,000ft...

There WAS a written agreement. Breaking the contract was bad enough, but the loud & antagonistic manner in which it was done wasn't calculated to help matters either. Knowing that I wasn't really bargaining from a position of strength, I think I would've preceded the written notice with some calm & friendly discussion (but not formal notice) to get a reading on what the landlord's response was going to be. THEN I'd have made up my mind about what to do. Handled differently, this MIGHT well have turned out just the way you wanted it to. 'Certainly not an indictment of all things British that someone insisted that the terms of an agreement be, uh, well, "honored"...

Urban myth; Stereotype; Other overgeneralization - different things. Aren't most of the foregoing one of the latter two? Urban myths more like here I think...

Good luck with that. 'Have never seen Thai Air comparably priced with the other options from LAX.

Someday when I grow up, I want to travel business class...

Here here. All the flights I've taken over the last several years have been absolutely full, at least for the oceanic leg - but anytime I have seen empty rows on a long flight, as soon as they close the door I move (along with everybody else trying to the same thing). And sometimes somebody else moving actually leaves me with an empty row. 'Have never seen a flight attendant on any airline pay any attention whatsoever.

I've used it once for a connection at Suv., and they lived up to their billing. I was met, escorted through a FT station at Immigration, then escorted to Baggage Claim, and then to the check-in counter for my departing flight. I erred though. Arriving from Cambo, I knew I had to leave the secure area in order to check-in for a Cebu Pacific flight to Manila. So I booked with FT for the arrival side because I was expecting long lines through immigration. That turned out to not really be the case that night however, and so I didn't really save that much time. What I SHOULD have done was book with them for the DEPARTING side - THAT'S where the outbound line through Immigration turned out to be monstrous that night ('were wrapped all the away around the termina check-in area; 'had never seen it like that before, and many people were simply missing their flights because of it), but didn't realize it until at the check-in counter and able to observe it. Unless things have changed, you have a choice when you book with FT - you can book an arrival, a departure, or both.