Word: baht
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...estate. Among an inner circle of 51 mistresses, whom the old-school Thais delicately call "minor wives," Marshal Sarit had generously scattered villas, autos and other largesse, and fathered at least nine children. Many minor wives actually filed court claims for a share of Sarit's tickels, or baht, as Thais call their money...
...even more spectacular than his dalliance balance. Contesting Widow Thanpuying Vichitra's claim to the marshal's estate, Sarit's two sons by a previous wife estimated that their father was worth at least 2.8 billion tickels, or $143 million. That seemed a lot of baht for a career soldier. So, before allowing his estate to be distributed, Sarit's successor, Thanom Kittikachorn, appointed a five-man committee to see if any government funds had lodged in Sarit's pocket...
...keep the lexicon manageable, Teachers Wright and Hofford have included only words with five letters or less, and though many are of foreign origin (e.g., baht, the monetary unit of Siam; alif, the first letter of the Arabian alphabet), most are eminently usable in the U.S. Botanists and biologists may already know about corms (short, bulblike stems) and wekas (flightless New Zealand wading birds...
...Defense Ministry last week drew 8,000,000 baht (about $800,000) from the National Bank of Siam. In orderly Western fashion, the Ministry accounted for the expenditure: "to pay coup expenses." Tango Interrupted. The coup itself had been orderly (one of the plotters described it as "very straightforward and very kind-hearted") but a little hard for Westerners to understand. The first point to get straight is that all Siamese politics turns around the rivalry between royalist Field Marshal Phibun (pronounced "fee bun") Songgram and republican Pridi Banomyong, who both went to school in France in the 1920s...
...attacking Siberia, and wished to avoid the war with Britain and the U.S. that would follow an attack on Singapore or the Indies, her most likely next move would seem to be on Thailand. Under pressure, the Government of Premier Luang Pitul Songgram granted Japan a 10,000,000-baht ($3,600,000) loan, recognized Manchukuo as a token of friendship. (It was carefully explained that the recognition of Manchukuo had been chosen as a lesser evil than recognizing Puppet Wang Ching-wei at Nanking.) Japan continued pressing demands-demands which, if accepted, could end only in the capitulation...