MEDIUM RARE Autumn has arrived. The leaves have fallen, are falling, will fall some more, some of them gold and golden brown, some very dry, crunchy brown. It will be Halloween in a few days and before you know it, Christmas Day, in the time of Nick. Tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday, the first in a...
MEDIUM RARE Yes, please, let’s have peace on earth even if it’s in pieces. Ukraine-Russia. Israel-Hamas. In the Philippines, sporadic election violence, and all for what? Some barangay to-do and young politicians dabbling in politics. In Pope Francis’ words, “Stop, stop!”...
MEDIUM RARE Fast fashion. Disposable fashion. Wear today, trash tomorrow. If there seems to be no discernible fashion trend/s today, does it mean millennials and their kid sisters and younger cousins have found the joy of wearing clothes so basic they could almost count as classic? (Classic,...
MEDIUM RARE How often can we be thrilled at the sight and sounds of a cellist performing live, solo, with a full orchestra behind him or her? The chance came on Friday the 13th of October, when the Swiss-born Wen-Sinn Yang took center stage at Samsung theater and took my breath away. Brilliant!, to...
MEDIUM RARE When Rose Zamora, mother of San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, invited friends to join her at the launching of Dongfeng cars, would she have suspected that the greater incentive was to see President BBM in the flesh? First of all, our group could not be sure if Dongfeng was a...
MEDIUM RARE Military intelligence, according to the late great Rod Dula, essayist, pundit, and travel writer, is an oxymoron. Morons probably don’t know it, but an oxymoron is a figure of speech in which the words that form it are contradictory to each other, as in “deafening silence.” Going...
MEDIUM RARE Baguio, the summer capital. Why does everyone feel good when they’re in the “city of pines”? It must be the trees which, long after summer, continue to provide shade, an assurance of ever-green. Without those trees, pine or something else, Baguio would be like any other...
MEDIUM RARE What a sight to behold! A highway slicing through the provinces of Central Luzon, on each side of NLEX where nature’s gift of green is decorated by an endless spool of white ribbon -- talahib or cogon? – as their feathery heads sway with the breeze. As far as the eye can see, but...
MEDIUM RARE Come up, come up! That’s what I feel like yelling at lowlanders while Baguio seems to be at its best behavior – fine, fair, beautiful weather, voila!, at temperatures ranging between 18C at bedtime and 23C at naptime, flirting with a sprinkling of spring-like rain while clouds play...
MEDIUM RARE Robina Gokongwei Pe was right all along, 15 or more years ago, when she predicted that pets would be the next great thing to happen to business. Look at them now. Dressed to the nines, in fancy garments with appropriately fancy accessories, participating in weekend promenades at the...
MEDIUM RARE She was the agenda setter of the group, after all she was one of the three Marias in President Cory Aquino’s media office. Those six years as Assistant Secretary gave her access to people in government who were not afraid to share their opinions with journalists who had too many...
MEDIUM RARE What does it take to be a Gringo, “cashiered colonel” and coup leader, former senator, former secretary of Information and Communications Technology, to look so good after these many years? Gringo Honasan, who should be in his ‘70s but doesn’t look it, replied with a broad...
