The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

In a follow-up story to my recent Prime Time post, Thailand’s parliament elected a new P.M. to replace our man Samak. Somchai Wongsawat, unlike his predecessor, is no Rachael Ray. He’s the brother-in-law (and alleged puppet) of Thaksin Shinawatra, one of Thailand’s many deposed leaders, so his selection has pissed some people off.

(Is this too confusing? Imagine how the Thais feel; this is their fourth P.M. in two years. And I can’t help noticing that if you take the “h”, and the “aw” out of Shinawatra, you get Sinatra. Draw your own conclusions.) Read More

Talk about your crabby cooks. This week, the world’s crabbiest may be Samak Sundaravej, Thailand’s freshly ousted prime minister.

The reason he got booted is not what you’d expect. The usual suspects in a political upheaval (protestors) have indeed been very active of late; thousands occupied Samak’s compound, demanding his resignation. But that’s not why he got thrown out. Read More