MEDIUM RARE Penny has painted her door a crunchy apple green, and tied a vertical ribbon, running down from top to bottom, one with a Christmas motif. The result is her door looks like a huge Christmas present. Pat-P has changed her color theme this year, from the all-pink of 2024 to red and...
MEDIUM RARE ... It pours. Typhoon weather north and south. Two dead in Cebu, half a million homeless. Elsewhere, a storm surge, three to four meters high. Earthquake and landslides. Lahar in Guinobatan. No power in some towns in Isabela. The floods were described as historical, covering some...
MEDIUM RARE Yes, yes, I know, those two words in the headline should be followed by two more words: want not. Waste not, want not. What comes to mind first and foremost when you’re talking about waste? Food. I was chatting with the supervisor of a small army of waiters who were clearing away and...
MEDIUM RARE Add to that, Happy Halloween! And while we’re at it, happy trick or treating! It used to be that little boys were so easily scared of their own shadows jumping out of a dark corner. How times have changed, because now they want to be the ones doing the scaring, boo! And doing it in...
MEDIUM RARE I live in Quezon City. My favorite Auntie No. 3 lived in Quezon province for most of her mar-ried life. I go up and down Quezon Ave., QC, whenever I go to Manila and return to QC. Quezon City happens to own some of the widest, longest roads, the same way it harbors tree-lined streets...
MEDIUM RARE Purplish mountains. Blue skies. And dreaming under fluffy white clouds, pine trees reaching for the sun. Each time I set foot in Baguio City, I imagine it as timeless. Mornings at 8 feel the same as afternoons at 5, just before the sun sets. Is it my watch or imagination? But when...
MEDIUM RARE ‘Twas my first time to take lunch in Malacañang Palace’s Dream House – Bahay Pangarap – by the river. Such a serene, romantic sight – the water flowing, a clump of old trees standing on the river’s edge like a sentinel, and all around the grass in a tender shade of green....
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...
