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I saw this pink reclining Ganesha in a video recently. Did you talk to the mouse? 

Nothing tricky about that.  When Pali is transliterated into Thai script, no tone marks are used because Pali doesn't need them. Thai readers who don't speak Pali therefore automatically pronounce the Pali words according to the Thai rules for default tones, not how a native Pali speaker would say them. Yes, thank you, I have studied the tone rules (for a definitive work see Chapter III of The Thai System of Writing, by Mary R Haas, which I have in front of me right now) so I'm well aware that there are many syllables for which no modifying tone mark is needed.  That's obvious just by looking at any typical bit of written Thai. (For example: อย่าสอนจระเข้ว่ายน้ำ has seven syllables but only four have tone marks.) Nevertheless, many other syllables do need a modifying tone mark. But I think you've missed my point, which is that when you see sixty-four consecutive syllables with no tone marks at all something is going on, and the something in this case is that the language isn't Thai.  

TRUMP'S WAR WEEK 1 Winning will be easy, it’ll be over in 10 days. WEEK 2 I won. WEEK 3 Why aren’t you weak Europeans helping me? WEEK 4 I don’t need your help, but if you won’t help me I will destroy NATO. WEEK 5 If I don’t win today I will destroy your entire civilization. WEEK 6 I'm winning, and to prove it here’s a picture of me dressed as Jesus. WEEK 7 The Pope is a dumb, woke fool who doesn’t understand Christianity because he won’t help me. WEEK 8 I’m getting bored now. WEEK 9 - 15 Really bored. Look, I have important stuff to do, like build a ballroom and a victory arch. WEEK 16 Total Victory! Where’s my Peace Prize? WEEK 18 They're begging to make a deal. WEEK 20 And now I'm going to bomb Oman, wherever that is, because they won't help me.

Advertisement   WORLD   MIDDLE EAST Why Trump Is Threatening Again to Bomb Oman Some U.S. officials see Oman as favoring Iran, while others say Trump is lashing out over failures to make a nuclear deal   By  Alexander Ward  and  Robbie Gramer Aug. 17, 2026 at 8:00 pm ET 648 Gift unlocked article Listen (5 min) President Trump in the Oval Office on Monday. SAMUEL CORUM/SIPA/BLOOMBERG NEWS Quick Summary                   President Trump threatened to bomb Oman, alleging the country might be standing in the way of an agreement with Iran.View more WASHINGTON—The White House for weeks promised that Iran was close to signing a nuclear deal and that Oman could be helpful in reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The tiny Gulf nation suddenly found itself at the center of the effort to end the war.  This deal, however, has proved elusive. And President Trump’s frustration with this standoff prompted him to threaten to bomb Oman on Monday, as he alleged the country might be standing in the way of an agreement. “I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily just like we do others,” Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office. He didn’t go into specifics about what Omani officials did that drew his ire. U.S. officials said the Oman picture was murky. The Gulf country that borders the Strait of Hormuz to the south is in talks with Iran to allow more commercial traffic in the waterway. U.S. officials said those negotiations were progressing and could relieve pressure on the global energy market and higher domestic gas prices. But there is lingering concern within the administration that Oman could aid Iran in brokering a nuclear deal more favorable to Tehran, feeding Trump’s anger. Oman is just the latest country to draw Trump’s anger for not—in his view—doing more to help end the Iran conflict he started alongside Israel. On Sunday, he ordered a cut to a joint U.S.-South Korea military drill because Seoul wouldn’t help pry open the Strait of Hormuz. “Would you like to give us a little hand,” Trump said, recounting a conversation he said he had with South Korean President Lee Jae Myungbefore stressing that the U.S. didn’t actually need any help. “He said, ‘no thanks,’” Trump added. “And I said, ‘Wait a minute: We have 39,000 soldiers over there, guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That’s strange.’” Trump has also complained that European allies such as the U.K. and Spain haven’t done enough to counter Iran, an extension of his decadeslong gripe that allies take more from the U.S. than they give. A debate has raged within the administration about how to handle Oman. Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, as seen from Oman. REUTERS Some senior aides privately accuse Oman of being a duplicitous actor that largely sides with Iran instead of seeking the best possible deal between Washington and Tehran, officials said. Others say Oman’s longstanding ties to Iran are a boon to the mediation process. Those officials assert that Trump is scapegoating Oman as he seeks others to blame for struggling to complete a nuclear deal. There is also concern the Iran-Oman deal could solidify Tehran’s control over the strait, U.S. officials said, noting Trump prefers an agreement that fully reopens the passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and energy flowed before the war. Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East issues at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Iran was pressuring Oman into the joint plan so it has the patina of a legitimate cross-strait project. “Trump’s threats only embolden the Iranians who sense further weakness,” said Cook. “Instead of being totally open, the strait is mostly closed.” The embassy of Oman in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment. Trump in June set a 60-day deadline to end the war with Iran and push Tehran to give up its nuclear program. That deadline expired on Monday with neither side giving ground, leaving an unclear path to ending the conflict. The U.S. has relied on Qatar and Pakistan as mediators to try to bring about an end to the war while it pushed Oman, the initial mediator, to the side.  Trump has told aides that he would consider declaring Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon blocked and the war won if Tehran agreed to fully open the waterway, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. Relations between the U.S. and Oman have deteriorated in recent months. Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who played a role in mediating U.S.-Iran talks before the war, repeatedly criticized the U.S. decision to launch the war, even appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” to try to prevent the first wave of attacks.  “Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making,” he said in a social-media post in March. The Trump administration previously threatened to sanction and even launch strikes against Oman after intelligence assessments concluded that the Persian Gulf country planned to impose tolls on vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz with Iran in a bid to see the strait reopened. Oman repeatedly denied these assessments. Advertisement   Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that Iran’s tolling the Strait of Hormuz would be a red line for the Trump administration and set a dangerous precedent for other strategic international waterways around the world.  Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8   Appeared in the August 18, 2026, print edition as 'Frustrated Over War, Trump Threatens Ally Oman'.   Alexander Ward is a national security reporter covering the White House and State Department for The Wall Street Journal in Washington. Alex’s reporting focuses in particular on the inner workings of the National Security Council and how top players in an administration formulate and execute foreign policy. Alex was previously the White House and national security reporter at Politico, where he was also the first author of its "National Security Daily" newsletter. Before that, he was Vox's White House reporter covering foreign policy and worked at the Atlantic Council think tank covering national security and military affairs. Alex has won numerous awards for his reporting and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist along with Politico colleagues for Supreme Court coverage.  In February 2024, Alex published his first book, "The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy after Trump." He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Follow   Robbie Gramer is a national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal in Washington. He previously worked at Politico, where he was a reporter and the lead author of the newsletter NatSec Daily. Robbie has reported from over two dozen countries across Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. He has reported from the halls of Congress, remote research stations in the Amazon rainforest and aboard Norwegian coast guard cutters high in the Arctic Circle. He was also the host of Foreign Policy magazine’s award-winning podcast, “After Hotel Rwanda,” about the kidnapping of a Rwandan human-rights activist and U.S.-led efforts to free him. Before his career in journalism, Robbie was associate director of transatlantic security at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. Robbie graduated from American University with a degree in international relations. Follow   Hide Conversation (648)      

Has anyone been to Nom Spa in Da Nang?