Jokes aside, "Try-again Thep" is finally sitting on a fortune

THE LIFE OF former comedian Thep Pho-ngam has been such a roller-coaster ride that we’re praying to every god within hearing range for his latest venture to succeed.
Thep’s been wallowing in ink red for a long time due to a series of business failures. Now, though, at age 66, he’s aiming for yet another comeback, not with the jokes but with another business, this one selling like kanom pia Chinese cakes and paa tong koh fried-dough snacks in Nakhon Pathom.
His faithful fans have been by to show their support and have been sharing their photos of his food treats on the social media. We’ve also seen the pictures posted on Instagram by his niece, actress Rhatha “Yayaying” Pho-ngam.
“I originally wanted to have just a khao tom shop,” says the uncle who refuses to quit, “but then Yayaying posted the kanom pia online and suddenly there were loads of customers! I can’t meet all the demand because there’s just too much work!”
The shop is called Krua Khun Thep, or Khun Thep’s Kitchen. Thep jokes that he dared not use the name “Paa Thep” again for another eatery because that one went nowhere. “But at least I already had the kitchen appliances and tables and chairs. If I really have to deal in bigger quantities of kanom pia, though, I might have to hire staff and rent a bigger place.”
Thep never expected his freshly made snacks to become such a hit, so he asks hungry prospective customers to give him some time. “Look at all these people coming in and they all want to taste my kanom pia!” he laughs.
Well, if he’s got that many potential customers, maybe we can finally stop worrying about the guy.

Safe from Prayut’s prying eyes
Have you ever wondered how Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is so attuned to the news that he can publicly and frequently rebuke the press for being “negative” about what he’s trying to do for this country? Well, it turns out that he’s very well-read indeed, so maybe we (the press) are in fact too negative.
ThaiPublica.org recently surveyed “who’s reading what” in the Prayut Cabinet and discovered that the premier personally reads 10 papers a day – Thai Rath, Daily News, Matichon, Post Today, Khao Sod, Manager Daily, Thai Post, Bangkok Post and our two sister dailies, Krungthep Turakij and Kom Chad Luek. That’s right, go ahead and laugh – he doesn’t read The Nation. (He probably hates Soopsip). He does, however, include Nation Weekender among the three news magazines he pores over.
To find out what’s in The Nation and whether it’s being just as negative as all the rest, Prayut likely turns to Somkid Jatusripitak, the head of his economic team, who does read this paper along with 10 others, including the Bangkok Post and the New York Times, plus Time and The Economist.
Deputy Prime Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn scours both of Bangkok’s English-language dailies, probably because he was an ex-foreign minister. Several Cabinet members came right out and said they prefer the Post to The Nation. (You can see why this country is in such a mess.)
ThaiPublica.org reckons that the 23 Cabinet ministers spent Bt840,000 of taxpayers’ money on newspapers and magazines from last October to last month. That’s a lot of negativity.