Snake bites teenager using the toilet

11 Comments

1. 

   Keith Fitzgerald

   September 9, 2020 at 1:43 pm

   Is this news, or just toilet-reading?
   First of all, let me just remind you and your cohorts that compound adjectives require a hyphen between each word. Things like this are totally wrong, and just alert people right off the bat that the standards at The Thaiger are bottom-of-the-barrel:

   “The 1 metre long python”
   “a 4 year old was bitten”

   Hyphens are free, right? Just like commas, periods, question marks, and apostrophes.
   Now, in terms of content, something like the following is what one expects to see in Facebook or Twatter chatter: ” … (which begs the question, what was worse, the bite or the stitches?!)” You may personally find yourself to be humorous, but such chatter does not even enter the mind of a good writer, let along end up in print.

   Let me ask you about this strange sentence: “There have been numerous reports about snakes making their way into a toilet and biting people, usually after they’ve taken their pants off.” — Are you familiar with situations in which people sit on a toilet seat with their pants on?
   A final pointer for you regarding writing, since it appears that there is no editing happening there: Because you used the phrase ‘making its way into a toilet’ two sentences before the one I quote above, you might try being a bit creative, if that’s possible, and changing the phrasing, instead of just repeating yourself.

   Reply
   • 

     Tobias Krantz

     September 9, 2020 at 2:42 pm

     Take it easy Kieth Fitzgerald, I see your English correction comments here and I find them offensive. I was born in an English speaking country, I am an English teacher and my English is not perfect. Go and show-off somewhere else. Communication is about being able to get your idea across and to be understood, it is not about perfect English. I have known some of the most stupid and dysfunctional people speaking perfect English.

     Reply
   • 

     TS

     September 9, 2020 at 3:59 pm

     Throttle down Mr. Fitzgerald,
     it’s just a snake in a toilet story fer f’cks sake. If you’re so anal about grammar, go apply for job at thetiger, show us how it’s done. sheeesh…

     Reply
   • 

     The Thaiger & The Nation

     September 9, 2020 at 4:27 pm

     As we’ve mentioned to you before Keith, it’s a style thing and we don’t use hyphens in the compound adjectives. It bothers us not if you consider it correct or otherwise, we ain’t changing it just because you keep sending us tiresome emails. You’re welcome to whinge and complain about the accuracy of the facts or some glaring errors. Of course we will correct things we get totally wrong. We will make spelling mistakes and we have our own ‘style’ which uses a lot of conversational English and occasionally some of the abbreviated English we see appearing in social media… it’s just the way it is. English is a fluid language and keeps evolving. We would also recommend you migrate from The Thaiger’s bottom of the barrel news and find something more to your liking that doesn’t offend you. Tim, The Thaiger

     Reply
2. 

   Chipemberi

   September 9, 2020 at 5:59 pm

   I think the 3meter one and 15 stitches was an excuse for spending the night in soi cowboy with a not so happy ending

   Reply
3. 

   Rinky Stingpiece

   September 9, 2020 at 8:06 pm

   I’m trying to think of a crack about the response to the “toilet reading” being so anal, but I can’t squeeze one out.

   Reply
4. 

   James Pate

   September 10, 2020 at 7:16 am

   Much better than having an appendix removed;that scar is sure to, ahem, “give rise” to many a tall tale. “That SOB was 3 meters long and he bit me out of jealousy!”, etc.

   Reply
5. 

   Keith Fitzgerald

   September 10, 2020 at 3:32 pm

   “The Thaiger and The Nation”(Tim) falsely claims that his ads platform posing as a digital newspaper does not use hyphens in compound nouns. Apparently, he doesn’t even read the thing he’s in charge of. Here are some random examples of The Thaiger’s use of such hyphens, though such punctuation is willy-nilly missing in the body of most articles:

   Top 10 English-language news sources in Thailand (2020)

   Plan for long-term visitors set for October

   Thailand is the fourth most searched-for destination for your next holiday

   BTS release their first all-English track ‘Dynamite’, and it’s a disco bop!

   Police identify Phuket rush-hour killer, move to make arrest

   So, in a nutshell, we get back to the basic truth that there is hardly any editing of this thing, and that some compound adjectives will be hyphenated, while some will not. Why is that? Because most of the writers don’t know how to write, and the boss doesn’t care.
   Proper punctuation is not just “a style thing.” No serious writer would make such an absurd statement. The fact that many people don’t care does not render a principle null and void. Periods are for full stops. Commas are for breaths, pauses. Just because Tim uses a comma in his reply to me above, where a full stop occurs, does not make him correct. Likewise when he superciliously tells me that I am “welcome to whinge and complain” (as if I need his permission to do so), when those two verbs mean the same thing. That’s called redundancy, as any competent writer and editor knows. Would he approve of some nitwit on his staff writing something like “Mary was tearing up and crying”? Given what we see here every day, I guess the answer is yes.
   It just reveals ignorance and laziness, which is everywhere to be seen in the articles he approves.
   Isn’t it telling that none of the defenders of Miss Ashworth’s latest pabulum did not comment on my question regarding people sitting on a toilet with their pants on, or of the writer’s juvenile chatter within parentheses at the end of her first paragraph?
   Those are matters of content, not mere “style.” But it’s easier for the CEO and Toby Cramps to “whinge and complain” (duh) about what they perceive to be inconsequential matters of mere punctuation.
   As regards Mister Cramps informing us that he’s an “English teacher” from an “English speaking country,” as if that somehow qualifies him to hold forth on English written for publication by a self-proclaimed journalist, well, simply reading what he pooped out in all his high dudgeon gives us a shining example of the English and intellectual level of a high majority of English teachers from countries where English is the mother tongue. Thailand, like much of Asia, is notorious for hiring as “English teachers” inarticulate posers who are never seen with a book. They don’t read. They just surf the net. Surprise surprise.
   To wit, at an English center near Asok, two of the three full-time teachers did not even go to a university. One of them claimed in an online article for the center that Sydney is the capital of Australia. Another said that he had been a real estate appraiser in Melbourne, and then decided to take his money to Bangkok so he could live it up with bargirls. When he ran out of funds, he decided to get into “teaching,” as that’s the easiest job for any old white foreigner here to get.
   Anyway, whining Cramps is “offended” and he can’t spell my name and he thinks that the simple verb phrase “to show off” requires a hyphen.
   Where would we be without Mr. Thaiger pontificating about English being a “fluid language” which “keeps evolving,” as if that second major redundancy somehow excuses the detritus he publishes?

   Reply
   • 

     The Thaiger & The Nation

     September 18, 2020 at 9:51 am

     Thanks for all your earnest research Kieth. What WOULD we do without you?! (Is it ok to use a question mark and exclamation mark at the same time?)

     Reply
6. 

   Randall Hill

   September 18, 2020 at 2:15 pm

   Hello,

   I have written comments to several articles in the last few months. I don’t think any of them were disrespectful or not in good taste. However none of my comments was published, and also there has not been any communication from The Thaiger as to why they weren’t deemed acceptable to be published. Why is this?

   Randall Hill

   Reply
   • 

     The Thaiger & The Nation

     September 18, 2020 at 3:20 pm

     We’ve only ever received 2 comments from you Randall. Both have been published.

     Reply