MEDIUM RARE How long does it take for heaven to answer our prayers for rain? On Sunday May 12, the priest delivered his Oratio Imperata, prayer for rain, five minutes into the 10 a.m. mass at 10:05 a.m. in Greenhills, city of San Juan. I did not notice or hear any pitter-patter of...
MEDIUM RARE Q is for queue, but there’s no need to line up for cucumber juice, cucumber salad, or cucumber desserts at City of Dreams’ Nobu Japanese restaurant, a partnership between Robert De Niro and Chef Nobu, who own and manage restaurants all over the world. The celebrity tandem...
MEDIUM RARE Looking back at the damage left by Covid-19, most of the friends that you and I lost did not die of the virus but other diseases. The pandemic claimed many lives around the world, but there were other losses, other disruptions, not all due to Covid. Mini, small, and medium businesses...
MEDIUM RARE For the longest time and many times evermore I was sure that sooner or later Nedy Tantoco would be named Philippine ambassador to Italy. When that did not happen, I imagined that the post might have been offered to her, but she declined the nomination for love of Rustan Commercial...
MEDIUM RARE On a good day Wilson Tieng can tell you when the next sale will be scheduled at his Gourdo’s store – where you find nice stuff for the house, from pillows to pint-size porcelain vases – but that’s as far as it goes. Like his brother William says, “I work so Wilson can...
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 So PBBM likes “balut” – and so do lots of brave folks with strong stomachs. You know what they say about balut, how it fortifies a man’s image as manly. Years ago when a group of US Marines visiting Manila accepted the challenge to be tested for their vaunted...
MEDIUM RARE When Supreme Court Senior Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen launched his Supreme Court stylebook at Baguio Country Club’s Forbes ballroom last month, the event attracted 220-plus justices, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, law students, and, one supposes, the law-abiding, too. 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 On Labor Day when the temperature hovered between uncomfortable and oppressive, people sought sanctuary in the malls for their airconditioning. Which set shoppers and would-be window-shoppers wondering, how come the malls’ cooling systems have not earned a reputation for breaking down...
MEDIUM RARE It’s the same story every time, every year. The Manila airport’s cooling towers conk out when the foot traffic into its terminals outpaces the engines’ power to cool. At Christmas, even with a milder weather but with balikbayans swarming in, and then again in summer, with...
MEDIUM RARE Astrologers identify the Philippines as a Gemini country (based on the June 12 Independence Day), but for some reason I have more friends who were born in April than June. Maybe April people celebrate louder, with more music and cakes than Geminis. What we do know about April’s...
