World Vignettes

THAILAND: For people who like to talk, or perhaps sing, to their plants, Udon Sunshine Garden offers the perfect listener. Pradit Khampermpoon, one of Thailand’s best-known orchid growers, has created a new hybrid plant that responds to the human voice by dancing, or at least moving its leaves in a mannerthat resembles the Ram Wong, a Thai folk dance involving a graceful use of the hands in a sweeping back and forth motion. About 100 years ago many people knew about this plant, but then it disappeared. Farmers burned it to make way for cash crops, said Pradit. “I first heard about it from old people, old men about 80 years old.” Pradit is one of several hundred Thais who grow and breed orchids for a living.

A `sorry’ thief

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish car thief wrote a letter of apology to his unemployed victim asking for forgiveness but did not return the stolen car, Swedish newspapers said. “Sorry that I needed to borrow your car but I was in great need of it,” the thief wrote to 20-year-old Matthias Sunefjord from Sparreholm in southern Sweden. “I hope you can forgive me.” The thief, who stole the white Saab from outside Sunefjord’s home on Sunday night, enclosed the owner’s unemployment claim forms with his letter.