MEDIUM RARE The sun also shines in the north, now that Solaire the Second is on our soil, all 30-plus stories and a high-end hotel (cum casino), at that, in Quezon City. The original Solaire in Entertainment City, Parañaque, now has a twin, but if you know its owner, Enrique K. Razon –...
MEDIUM RARE We were classmates a hundred years ago, i.e., during the last century, in a class of 20, 25 journalism majors, of whom less than a handful actually ended up as journalists. Strangely or not, the ones who became my closest friends after college were/are the nonjournalists. They are...
MEDIUM RARE When I complained to our theology teacher that the grade he gave me was unfair because there were no corrections on my test paper, he replied, “One hundred is for God, 98 is for me, so 95 for you.” 95. A good number for those leaving their 94th behind. Today is the 95th birthday of...
MEDIUM RARE Season’s greetings! ‘Tis a sensitive, sensible radio dj who knows what music to play on a station that prides itself on touching those sentimental souls who have enough memories to sing along with Tony Bennett, Jerry Vale, et al. If you like old songs, you’ll like DWWW, late...
MEDIUM RARE Sandee S. Masigan gathered us Bulong Pulungan originals for what she called a reunion at Sofitel, our once-a-week home for 33 years whatever the political weather, the climate, or the whims of its members. Sandee being her mother’s daughter – mother being Bulong’s law...
MEDIUM RARE There we sat, around a round table that the Chinese call a lauriat table, “lau” and “diat” meaning a celebration. With Ray and Auntie Baby Arleen Fernandez presiding, we took our seats – Dr. Nemi Platon and her husband Johnny, who drove all the way from the family-owned...
MEDIUM RARE Last Thursday’s front page read like a divorce document. “VP Sara Duterte resigns from Cabinet” and “Over 40 lay groups form ‘super coalition’ against divorce”. There’s an “absolute divorce bill” pending in Congress, a close call between 131 pro divorce versus 129...
MEDIUM RARE Irreconcilable facts. We are – were? – an agricultural country. Once upon a time our IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) attracted farmers from all over Asia, including Vietnam, to learn the best techniques in planting, etc. Today we are the world’s leading importer...
MEDIUM RARE Not seven, not ten. Eight minutes, advised the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and that’s exactly how much time the priest took to deliver his sermon last Sunday. I timed him, and he was on the dot. Eight minutes, said the Pope from the Vatican. His advice had the effect of an ex cathedra...
MEDIUM RARE Charisse Chuidian, VP for public relations of City of Dreams hotel out there in BGC, wouldn’t be the acknowledged dean of hotel p.r.’s in the Philippines if she did not know the ABC of what it is to be nice to clients and good to people in general. So when she gathered us for lunch,...
MEDIUM RARE From the time she retired as secretary to a string of ex-journalists who found themselves one after the other as VP of Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) public relations office, Rosie Dizon has been making rosaries — bead by bead, chain by chain, five mysteries at a time — for people who...
MEDIUM RARE In my family, Ateneo, UP, and UST are the universities to enroll sons and daughters after high school. Generally, the girls are alumnae of Immaculate Conception Academy Greenhills and the boys are from Ateneo. We non-Atenistas have a common challenge: Why shouldn’t the Jesuits rank...
