MEDIUM RARE Besides his State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President’s report on his accomplishments, there’s one other list, which we may describe as “Sana,” our “wish” word in the vernacular, as in “maybe” or “hopefully.” Among his successes and soon-to-be projects, PBBM...
MEDIUM RARE An old song pays tribute to a city in the US with a phrase so descriptive — “climb halfway to the stars” — that it’s hard not to remember the lyrics as well as the music. A perfect wedding of pretty words and lovely music. In real life, San Francisco’s appeal — as with...
MEDIUM RARE Weekends are for recharging out of town. Life seems to get better as the landscape softens to a green that’s as clean as the sky is blue. Away from one’s usual haunts, the usual weather and what-nots, what unfolds is something like “shaking off the dust of everyday living.”...
MEDIUM RARE After feeding me a full meal — salad, noodle soup, chicken, dessert — my children led me, meek as a lamb about to be sacrificed on the altar, to the deepest section of the drugstore where a nurse was waiting for patients. The nurse was in a jumpsuit in two shades of blue, looking...
MEDIUM RARE A new book calls for a celebration! In the age of AI, cellphones and larger screens, there’s no solitary pleasure to compare with the lonely joy of reading a book. A new book with its pristine covers and crisp white pages covered with words – what’s not to like? A book holds a...
MEDIUM RARE Said the cashier to me in the bookstore last week, “That’s our last copy.” She was referring to my purchase of Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, Conclave, a work of fiction but one packed with facts, including a map of St. Peter’s Square that includes the basilica and Sistine...
MEDIUM RARE With Olive and Niwa Ang in their car, I was able to visit again Baliwag, Bulacan, home of our friend Manny Samson, interior designer who has clients, including grand hotels, on both sides of the globe. And just as I remembered, Manny’s famous white house occupies an entire block on...
MEDIUM RARE It’s a Buddhist-Hindu concept, but no one in the Philippines can say that they don’t know what Karma means. In real life (listen to your neighbors) or in soap operas (turn on your TV), Karma is a word freely thrown about between quarreling parties, words like “Ma-karma ka sana!”...
MEDIUM RARE In the month of hearts, congratulations to the Philippine Heart Center for Asia! The last time I had a chance to speak with Imelda R. Marcos, I thanked her for the Heart Center which, with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, may be said to be her outstanding achievements of the...
MEDIUM RARE As a “food-obsessed” people, is it true we eat six times a day? Which would put snacking as a national pastime. And yet we have laws against donating unconsumed food to charities like orphanages, homes for the aged and such. It’s also true that whatever food is left uneaten in the...
MEDIUM RARE Forget your K-drama. Forget the poverty porn of the last century. (I still remember how Lino Brocka said he had to “smuggle” a copy of his “Insiang” out of the country, for fear that then first lady Imelda Marcos would stop it from reaching the Cannes Film Festival for...
MEDIUM RARE Try digesting this. If you’re earning a minimum daily wage of ₱600 and you have three children to feed, the logic behind the math (or the math behind the logic) is that each child gets ₱200 of food for two meals in one day. What’s ₱200 in terms of food prices? Based on...
