MEDIUM RARE Mother’s Day has come and gone, but as a mother-in-law my secret wish is that Hallmark greeting cards would invent a Mother-in-Law’s Day also. True, every mother-in-law was a mother until her daughter or son got married. That’s how families grow, and soon enough mother becomes a...
MEDIUM RARE April was International Food Month, and as PBBM pointed out, it’s good to chew on the fact that Filipino food is in a list of the top 100 cuisines of the world. How far near the top or the bottom, who cares? Filipino food, with its rich ingredients of history, culture, tradition, and...
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...
MEDIUM RARE As the man said, music shakes off the dust of everyday living. What is music? The most elusive of the arts, hard to define or even describe, yet nothing like music to touch the heart, refresh the mind, enliven the spirit. The one thing to add to the joy of performing or listening...
MEDIUM RARE It’s sizzling out there, that is, here in Metro Manila, with maximum temperatures hitting 32C, with no promise of clouds promising rain. But in Tagaytay, temperatures are down by around five degrees – welcome to the coolish breeze and the cooling sight of the lake. The problem with...
MEDIUM RARE Patrick Fernandez, US-based (Orange County) investment banker and Manila-born feng shui advocate, advises ladies of every age and persuasion: “Seize the moment. You are due for leadership roles for the next 20 years.” Attention: First Lady Liza A. Marcos, Vice President Sara...
MEDIUM RARE As expected, Ralph Recto, the new secretary of finance, has a head for numbers. The wonderful thing about him is that he has a way with words also. Add to those two gifts, he’s quite a nice guy – ask Mrs. Recto, aka Vilma Santos – plus he has a sense of humor besides. He’s so...
MEDIUM RARE Two of the nicest people I’ve known have left us, they say for a better place. With them gone, how easy would it be to find two nicer persons to take their place? Portia Leuterio was the little pink lady who lived in a little pink house that I called her teacup cottage. She lived...
MEDIUM RARE Family bonding, a strong element of Filipino group dynamics, but not every individual chooses to have Family to live and get along with. There are those who prefer to live alone and seem to be happy doing so, a conscious and deliberate decision. They don’t need Barbra Streisand...
MEDIUM RARE Responding to President BBM‘s call to memorialize the courage, not only of saints but also of our dear departed, the brave and the bold, as we end a week of holy days and holidays, I beg the reader’s indulgence to let me pay tribute to my mentors in journalism, the only profession...
MEDIUM RARE At the cash counter in the little crafts shop where I bought PH-made stickers and paid ₱400 for four tiny sheets, I told the cashier, “Imagine, stickers costing ₱100 per sheet.” She said, poker-faced, “Everything’s expensive now. Transportation two-way is hurting my wallet,...
