MEDIUM RARE On Labor Day when the temperature hovered between uncomfortable and oppressive, people sought sanctuary in the malls for their airconditioning. Which set shoppers and would-be window-shoppers wondering, how come the malls’ cooling systems have not earned a reputation for breaking down...
MEDIUM RARE It’s the same story every time, every year. The Manila airport’s cooling towers conk out when the foot traffic into its terminals outpaces the engines’ power to cool. At Christmas, even with a milder weather but with balikbayans swarming in, and then again in summer, with...
MEDIUM RARE Astrologers identify the Philippines as a Gemini country (based on the June 12 Independence Day), but for some reason I have more friends who were born in April than June. Maybe April people celebrate louder, with more music and cakes than Geminis. What we do know about April’s...
MEDIUM RARE She is a powerhouse in her own right, with a string of accomplishments taller than herself, all of them logged in the private sector. Until now. When she celebrated her birthday on April 20, who’d have thought she would brag that she’s a senior citizen aged 64? In one part of her...
MEDIUM RARE Eat right, eat light. If hot water comes out of the tap and you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, it’s time to skip a meal that’s heavy on meat, such as pork, beef, lamb. Blame the heat. There’s a reason – other than religion – why people who live in hot climates eschew...
MEDIUM RARE Dubai, in the middle of the desert, swimming and sinking in floods wrought by rain. Manila, in the middle of an archipelago of 7,600 islands floating on blue-green water, crying and praying for rain. What if we could switch places on the map? Could we use science, satellite technology,...
MEDIUM RARE As the French would say it, enchanté! On the day Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential, the President took pity – “nakakaawa” – on the riders of e-bikes and e-trikes who were being fined and arrested for using national roads. “The...
Whenever I am asked, “What is your favorite cuisine in the countr y?” Without hesitation, my answer is always Ilocano cuisine. Why? It is one or two of the only cuisines in the country that is not influenced by any foreign cuisine. I love cuisine from Pampanga, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Samar,...
MEDIUM RARE On a warm summer night, what nicer place to hold a party than under a starlit sky, on a terrace overlooking a slope of hill outlined in fairy lights? The hilly slope is positioned between Quezon City and Marikina, and it’s the 14th home to da one and only Mader, Ricky Reyes to...
MEDIUM RARE A long time ago T.S. Eliot said that April is the cruelest month. Another person, perhaps also a poet, said that “April is a promise that May is bound to keep.” What promise? In these our tropical islands, please make that the promise of rain, but rain without typhoons and...
MEDIUM RARE It’s summer, all right, and a sizzling, sweltering one. Should we chuck our underwear and remember to share the advice with all who’re trying to keep their cool? Congresswoman Janette Garin, an MD and former secretary of health, is to be thanked for taking such intimate discussion...
MEDIUM RARE Cousins are friends who happen to be related by blood. That statement is based on my own personal experience, especially after several of my cousins – all of them from my mother’s side – gathered recently for a first, a grand reunion. Cousins are the friends you grew up with,...
