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This phrase is not often heard nowadays, which is quite surprising in some ways, given how often you hear reports of people being afflicted by the effects of what it means, which is a sedative (or sometimes in the US a purgative) drug surreptitiously slipped into someone’s drink. It has very likely been supplanted by the more modern words ‘spiked’ or ‘roofied’, but it is a shame that the practice continues, even if the original phrase does not.
A foreign man who drowned after being swept out to sea in the Hua Hin area last week has been identified as a British pensioner, aged 75, from Liverpool, according to UK media reports. A Hua Hin police spokesman said that fisherman had found the man’s body near a pier around 4:30pm on Wednesday 15th April. Apparently he had been swimming in the same location every morning since arriving in Hua Hin, and that the conditions normally appeared calm. However on that day conditions were rougher, and it is believed he entered the sea near the mouth of the bay, possibly from Hua Don Beach (featured image above), which was previously used as the channel for the ferry crossing to Chonburi. This area is deeper than the surrounding waters due to dredging to accommodate larger boats.
Try not to laugh but scientists at the University of Maryland have developed a device that they hope will clear the air on a delicate topic – flatulence. Previous research has more often than not fallen a bit flat because of relying on self reporting by volunteers of their flatus (the scientific name for passing wind, farts or one of the many other names used for this expelling of intestinal gas), but the creation of “Smart Underwear” looks to have allowed the researchers to let rip in this field of study.
One of the delights of etymology is the discovery of unexpected connections between words and there is no richer source of these than the class of words known as frequentatives. Never heard of them? But you use them all the time. For instance… when you are fond of something you might find yourself fondling it. To fondle was formed simply by adding -le to the word fond and many other frequentatives are formed along the same lines. Thus, a handle is meant to be grasped by a hand, a spindle is used in spinning and one treads upon a treadle.
Residents across much of Hua Hin and Cha Am were affected by smoke and other air pollution emanating from several forest fires to the north west of Hua Hin, close to the Black Mountain golf course and water park. The Suomi NPP satellite detected three heat hotspots in the area (approximately shown on the map further down in this article), with one in the morning of Tuesday 27th January, and another two subsequently, which were followed up by reports from citizens. Officials from the Phetchaburi Provincial Office of Natural Resources and Environment, and an initial team of 20 officers from three different teams went to the area to contain and extinguish the fires, followed up with a further 25 personnel and a helicopter on the ensuing days.
Crystal Palace are set to face another key departure from their ranks, with the news that their only remaining attacker, Phoenix the eagle, has submitted a transfer request. This is a devastating blow to the club following the departure of Marc Guehi, and the imminent transfer of Jean-Claude Mateta in this transfer window, and after Ebere Eze’s move to Arsenal last summer. Phoenix has been ever present for the side since his introduction in August 2024, and has been pivotal in the club’s success which culminated in last season’s FA Cup win.
A man who was caught on CCTV attacking a hotel receptionist in the early hours of Monday (19th January) while she was sleeping behind the counter, who died from the injuries he inflicted, has been quickly tracked down and arrested by local and provincial police on Tuesday afternoon (20th January). The horrific and brutal attack on Wirin “Nui” Thaolipo, 35, was carried out during a robbery at the hotel in Soi Hua Hin 88/1, as the man paced around in the reception area before climbing over the counter and striking her at least 14 times with an iron bar, which he left at the scene. He then stole two mobile phones and a black bag before fleeing.
Everyone, in every language, refers to temperature, probably multiple times a day, whether referring to themselves, the weather (particularly the British!), or without necessarily realising it or any presence of noticeable physical temperature (read on for this last one). Let’s begin with the basic words hot and heat; the difference between the adjective and the noun is merely a change of vowels. This alteration of an internal vowel is known as an ablaut inflection. It is a very ancient trait of Indo-European languages which has all but disappeared from most modern languages although it is still quite common in English. Thus we have sit, sat and seat, raise, rise and rose, draw and drew and many others. The entire process seems so natural to speakers of English that Americans invented the word dove (as in swimming pool, not as in aviary) as the past tense of dive. (The British word is dived.)
We have probably all left something behind on occasion, but when you leave it on a bus, its not always so easy to retrieve it. When you are the bus company though, you accumulate a lot of expected items, like bags and brollies (umbrellas for US readers), but also some quite odd ones. A British bus company has revealed the most unusual items to wind up in its lost and found in 2025 included a box of fortune cookies and an inflatable dinosaur costume (main image but not the actual item; attribution – JMacPherson from Calgary, Canada, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
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