Thailand

Thailand is not a particularly large country. But the name of its current king is large, at least measured in how many letters it takes to write it. First, middle and last name: 41.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun's name rolls across the page like a freight train through downtown Reno at street level. You wish Murray the newswriter tried to get Ted Knight the newscaster to pronounce his name one evening on the WJM-TV news during The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

If King Maha were to appear in this year's edition of the Wold Cup, how big would his jersey need to be to accommodate that last name?

The middle name comes across as almost Icelandic. The last name like a pile of Scrabble tiles were dumped out onto the table, turned face up, and arranged in whatever order suited you. There's the bottom of the eye chart, and then there's Bodindradebayavarabgkun.

What puts the king's name in the news is not that his daughter is getting married. Apparently a contingent of soccer players, young boys, ages 11-16, and their coach, are stuck in a network of caves, so far unreachable because of seasonal flooding in the cave.

There is only one way in, and the same way out. Yesterdays' NYT story, by Richard C. Paddock, tells us, "heavy rains have flooded a narrow passage leading into the cave complex, blocking the group's exit and complicating rescue efforts, officials said." The boys and their coach have been trapped since Saturday.

A subsequent story, bylined by Mr. Paddock and Ryn Jirenuwat, describe the technical and mechanical efforts to find the boys and coach. There are also a variety of spiritual efforts practiced by many with the hope that the spirits will release those trapped.

There is something about these "buried" or lost underground stories that is truly compelling. In the 50s I remember the efforts to retrieve a boy from a well they had fallen into. Rescue efforts involved digging another shaft alongside the well, and then making a turn to try and connect with the well and retrieve the child. It worked.

Then there's Baby Jessica, 18 months, who fell into a well in Midland, Texas in 1987. Similarities to the 1950s incident were reported. Baby Jessica was rescued. There were the Chilean miners in 2010, who spent 69 days trapped underground, who were eventually rescued.

The story of the Thailand cave is still unfolding. But if those trapped can hold out as long as the king's name, the hope is they'll make it.

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