Re: Digest for vietnam-old-hacks@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[William Branigin]

Ah yes, the infamous "Gobble in the Gobi," as the liaison aboard a train was dubbed, iirc. 

Reminds me of a trip to Burma that we made back in the day. Jamie was trying to chat up a sweet young receptionist at the front desk of the Strand hotel in Rangoon. She was the picture of innocence, with her traditional garb and Thanaka paste on her cheeks. In the course of their chat, we learned that she was a Baptist. This prompted Jamie to remark that his father was a Presbyterian minister back in Scotland. This conversation ensued (you have to imagine the Scottish accent):
Jamie: So, would ya like to come up to my room and sing some hymns?

Receptionist: Oh no, I couldn't possibly do that.
Jamie: Well, why ever not?
Receptionist: I can't sing.

Very sorry to hear about Jamie's condition. Thanks to all who have shared reminiscences and tributes. He is one of a kind. I'll always think of him fondly.

Bill

On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 4:13 PM <vietnam-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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• Remembering Jim Pringle. - 2 Updates

Remembering Jim Pringle.

David Burnett <davi...@gmail.com>: Jul 09 08:29AM -0400 I barely knew Jamie Pringle, but was always impressed that a very smart man-of-the-world could get by in the diplomatic/news realm with the handle Jamie. (I didnt see him for the last 40+ years so that might have changed.). I first met him in Saigon, I think he was doing a drop by at the Time Life office at the Continental Palace, and went on to describe his recent trip to Mongolia, a geographic entity which at the time virtually no western journalists had managed to enter, and write about. And of course the most colorful retelling was of a young Mongolian woman with whom he spent some quality time. It conjured up a bunch of imagination-driven questions about, indeed, what kind of trip a person could have in Mongolia, what was there to report on, and how would you get the story out. His easy going manner Im sure put many uptight bureaucrats at ease in a way that most journos would not have done.... and I'm sorry to hear of his passing, since he was certainly one of those people who knew where the news was, how to find it, and how to share it with the rest of the world.

Mike Morrow <michaelda...@gmail.com>: Jul 09 09:57PM +0800 Well done, Carl. My last memories, and perhaps best, of Jimmy Pringle were also of the 2015 Saigon reunion. An always curious vintner of life, his conversations were relaxed, reflective and peppered with new experiences beyond these that had brought us there. And he wrote so well, especially for someone who wrote so much. Would there be an archive? Mike

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[Jim Caccavo]

I hate it when girls can't sing.

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