MEDIUM RARE Whenever a book is published, it’s good news that calls for a celebration. How many people today read for pleasure? “Reading . . . lasts when all other pleasures fade,” to quote Anthony Trollope. In the age of digitalization, books seem so low-tech, yet grandparents worry that...
MEDIUM RARE Cook is about to cultivate a phobia for going to market. Her latest report: Cherries from Hong Kong cost ₱50 a piece, per cherry, or ₱1,250 per kilo. That’s all right, I told her, I don’t need cherries (like I need cilantro to perfume my salads and steamed fish, for...
MEDIUM RARE When President BBM announced his appointees to the executive team, he declared, “I have an Ople in my cabinet.” (Quite like bragging, “I have a Bentley Rolls in my garage.”) After that mention of “Ople,” we have not heard any other name presaging a presidential...
MEDIUM RARE That’s how a certain type of policeman behaves, when his badge and uniform are not enough to “serve and protect” the people. Trigger-happy cops, tragic consequences for others. Each time a cop shoots an innocent victim, their elders in the PNP downgrade it as an isolated incident,...
MEDIUM RARE Johnny Litton’s fans, friends, sponsors of his long-running TV show, “Oh no, it’s Johnny!” came out in numbers to fill a ballroom and pay tribute. But where was Johnny? We all missed seeing Johnny on stage dishing out his one-liners, especially those tainted green and...
MEDIUM RARE If anyone can do it, it’s Manny. Years ago when Senator Cynthia Villar was expressing a wish to “convert” plastic furniture into something more environmentally suitable, someone said she would need lots of money to buy or use such a machine. “I will ask for money from...
MEDIUM RARE Now that practically everyone in my circle — it’s a small world, as they say — has heard about Chef Rafael (Tibong) Jardeleza Jr. and his month-long festival (until Aug. 31) of Western Visayas cuisine, I am convinced more and more that Filipino food escapes definition. One would...
MEDIUM RARE While the great majority of us try to understand – or undermine, from a position of non-understanding – the meaning and effect on consumers of that mysterious word “inflation,” the fact is that business has been good for Big Business. Unlike the nay-sayers who don’t like...
MEDIUM RARE The rich, said F. Scott Fitzgerald, are different from you and me. Which brought this riposte from Ernest Hemingway, “Yes, they have more money.” There must be something wrong with the annual Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest, otherwise I would’ve seen my name included, if...
MEDIUM RARE Nine months to carry a baby to full term, two years to sit out a virus. At long last, with the health emergency status induced by Covid-19 finally lifted, life is normal enough now to indulge in moments of serenity while reading a book. Specially a book as elegant to look...
MEDIUM RARE Two times in two days in different places I heard the same phrase, “Barya barya lang,” the vernacular for “small change,” though a better translation would be, “I’d be happy with whatever small change you can give.” The first time it was uttered, I heard it in the...
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,...
