Earlier in June, Bangkok Pundit caused quite a stir when he tantalisingly offered up the faintest sketch of a rumour and the intriguing idea that the clue was 15 June.
15 June? 15 June? We scratched our collective heads at New Mandala HQ and failed to come up with anything that resembled a breakthrough. Royal promotions, hospitalisations and all the other date-related randomness that history throws up didn’t get us any closer to the action.
But then it hit us. Somewhere along the line there was, we reasoned, a small astrological miscalculation. Even the biggest names in Southeast Asian future-gazing will tell you that it is possible to get things slightly wrong. In this case the clue was, surely, 16 June. “Why 16 June?”, you ask.
Sacred? Special? Great? All three!
This is the day back in (southern hemisphere) mid-winter 2006 when New Mandala was born.
On this auspicious third anniversary (3×3 = 9; 3-1-1=1; etc; etc) we have elected to offer up a small selection of New Mandala’s greatest hits.
Enjoy!
- Most commented post – The King Never Smiles? with 348 comments
- Best action post – Crushing the Red Shirts by Nick Nostitz
- Most out-of-place requests for a meeting – these two on a thread about Thailand’s crown prince
- Walker’s favourite headline – Actress gives PM a longan
- Anonymous commentators most likely to be big-name Thai Studies professors – Hang on…we can’t give that away…
- Most widely read and translated interview – Interview with Paul Handley
- Most effective Google bait – “Australian ladyboy sex tourist”
- Coolest domestic scene – Rubber dub dub
- Most cutting comment – “Are you sure…”
- Earliest commentator still regularly writing under same name – Bangkok Pundit (back in pre-coup September 2006). An honourable mention goes to Aiontay with a comment a few days later.
- Most bizarre thread – Volunteering to fight in Burma
- Most offensive to middle America – Lunch?
Thanks to everyone who makes New Mandala possible. We don’t know what the year ahead will bring but when we started this enterprise we certainly couldn’t imagine it would go this far, or last this long. Thanks for all of your support, interest and appreciation.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Marco // Jun 16, 2009 at 7:12 am
Several people mentioned the 15 June rumour to me but the only commonality we came to was that we reard about it on New Mandala!! A self-perpetuating one that was, and a dead end.
Well, it you want to talk numerology, we can add up the numerals of the clue: 15 +06 + 2005 = 19; add these together and we get 10, reduced to 1.
Add to this the numerals of the year of the same date given in the clue: 2009 reduces to 11, which reduces to 2. Then add the 1 from the original clue and we get …..3 – again.
Now that’s what I call magic
But what about the rumour?? Happy birthday NM.
2 blogskeptik // Jun 16, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I have noted that June 15th is often a day on which the royalty give themselves promotion.
3 Albert // Jun 16, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Happy anniversary, NM!
4 rookie // Jun 16, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Happy birthday, NM !
I have always recommended foreigners to open/read NM if they want to know more about Thaland. Of course they can buy the two English newspapers if they are hungry and want to find a food restaurant. As for political news, the two newspapers are hopeless.
5 Regular Reader // Jun 16, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Congratulations for coming this far !
Let’s hope by the time the next anniversary, or will it be the one after that, or even, the one after that, or just sometime in the future, progress has been made, in this wonderfully frustrating of countries?
And what, one may ask, is progress?
I guess, that’s what makes NM so importnat
Keep up the good work !
6 Khlong Cowboy // Jun 16, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Happy Birthday New Mandala! May there be many more years of Southeast Asia analysis on this site.
7 Long Live New Mandala // Jun 17, 2009 at 12:49 am
Congrats. Your site is essential.
Here is a contribution from your inverse:
David Carradine Murdered By Secret Shaolin Masturbation Sect
http://www.notthenation.com/pages/news/getnews.php?id=799
8 blogskeptik // Jun 17, 2009 at 2:32 am
I have never seen the point in having a pretentious academic discussion about subject matter that is so completely lacking in intellectual finesse.
9 Ralph Kramden // Jun 17, 2009 at 10:06 am
Why does blogskeptik bother to read blogs if really a sceptic? And then why make pretentious comments claiming pretension on the part of others? Wouldn’t it be better for a sceptic to desist and do something less academically pretentious?
10 Ralph Kramden // Jun 17, 2009 at 10:07 am
By the way, happy birthday and best wishes. Hope there are many more such celebrations.
11 chris baker // Jun 17, 2009 at 10:24 am
Congratulations. Keep it up.
12 Bangkok Pundit // Jun 18, 2009 at 2:37 am
Birthday greetings
13 Catherine // Jun 20, 2009 at 2:48 am
Thank you for this post as I’ve recently started reading Mandela.
Oh, and ‘Happy Birthday’…
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Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.