In 1956 Cole Porter wrote a catchy song for the film High Society which featured a satirical comment on what is more powerful, love or money? The song, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" was performed by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm and became a popular standard.
Among the millionaire's riches rejected in the song are "a country estate"; "giant yacht", "caviar" and having "flashy flunkies everywhere". You know you've really made it when you've got flashy flunkies. There weren't so many millionaires around in those days but since then we have advanced to multi-millionaires, billionaires, multi-billionaires and now, courtesy of Elon Musk we have a "trillionaire". I fear "zillionaires"might be just around the corner and even a "squillionaire" can't be far off. Whoopee!
For the curious the earliest self-made American millionaire was said to be Jacob John Astor who died in 1912 after making his fortune in the fur trade and steel. Other rich American dudes from the old days include the familiar names Cornelius Vanderbilt (shipping), Andrew Carnegie (steel), Nathan Rothschild (banking) and John D Rockefeller (oil).
Rockefeller incidentally received an honorary mention in the song "On the Sunny Side of the Street" in which we are told "I'll be rich as Rockefeller".
Not surprisingly Mr Musk is mentioned in a number of recent hip-hop songs as a symbol of massive wealth. Apparently a phrase frequently used in song lyrics these days is an "Elon burst", which I would explain if I knew what it meant. Perhaps we will soon be hearing a new song, "Who wants to be a Squillionaire?"
Pure evil
Another popular song with a similar theme is "Money is the Root of All Evil" made popular in the late 1940s by the Andrews Sisters. The song highlights the corrupting nature of wealth with the lyrics repeatedly informing us that "money is the root of all evil… take it away, take it away, take it away".
Then there was Pink Floyd's big hit in 1973 simply entitled "Money" which includes the lines "money so they say, is the root of all evil today". For some reason I always remember the first time I heard that song was on a jukebox in a Nakhon Phanom house masquerading as a bar when the US had a base there.
NKP City
The very mention of Nakhon Phanom sparks pleasant memories. My introduction to the town began in the early 1970s while waiting at Udon Thai bus station at dawn. I recall asking an elderly Thai gentleman where the bus left for Nakhon Phanom. It was met with a blank look. I tried again but with no success. My command of Thai was even worse than I thought. Then his eyes suddenly lit up in recognition. "En Kay Pee! (NKP)", he exclaimed and pointed to a dilapidated orange bus, which turned out to be the slowest bus in Thailand. The journey is best described as "tortuous".
The unusual NKP nomenclature was a result of the American air force base on the outskirts of the town during the Vietnam War and all the US military called it "NKP". When the Americans arrived in 1963 Nakhon Phanom was little more than a sleepy border town on the banks of the Mekong River. When they left in 1976 the place reverted to being a sleepy border town. But in between it was mighty "NKP City".
The monitors
NKP was primarily the monitoring station the Americans used for the Vietnam War. One of the bestselling t-shirts in the town was "In God We Trust. Everyone Else We Monitor". Another I bought in NKP read "Fly the Friendly Skies of Thailand 1975-76" with a Jolly Green Giant helicopter emblazoned on it.
My favourite spot in NKP was a restaurant/nightclub on the banks of the Mekong. It was where I first heard the talented Thai rock guitarist Lam Morrison perform and the place was packed every night with US servicemen who loved the music. The place also had photos of Laos being bombed just across the river a couple of years before.
The Americans are long gone but Nakhon Phanom remains one of my favourite spots on the Mekong with the spectacular backdrop of the limestone mountains in Laos.
Poodle power
Following last week's PostScript item about a buffalo that created havoc at Don Mueang airport my thanks to a reader for relating an incident at the airport many years ago concerning his family's large pet poodle. It was back in 1959 when his mother landed at Don Mueang on a Pan Am flight from Calcutta.
Travelling with her was her large black king-size poodle with an impressive "lion-style" haircut which made the dog look quite fearsome, not a word you normally associate with poodles.
Shortly before landing it became apparent the dog was bursting for a pee and as soon as the aircraft door opened the dog shot down the steps onto the tarmac. (This was in the days before boarding bridges). It proceeded to race around the tarmac for a suitable spot to take a leak. The sight of this big black creature with a wild haircut racing down the steps scared the wits out of the airport ground staff and they all fled, fearing it was some ferocious beast. They later explained they had never seen a dog quite like that before.
