MEDIUM RARE He could not have been older than 13 or 14, crouching over a plot of land beneath which lay the remains of (possibly) his father. If a photographer had been present, what a shot he could’ve taken. It was Father’s Day last Sunday the 18th. The memorial park was as busy as a typical...
MEDIUM RARE Does the Rotary Club of Manila have more fun? They meet every blessed week without getting bored or tired of each other’s faces, but it could also be that I happen to have more friends in this club than in any other. More likely, the truth is that their projects don’t seem to gather...
MEDIUM RARE We arrived for lunch and saw a long table all set and ready for us. What I was not prepared for was the sight of two extremely beautiful, extremely expensive cars, an Audi and a Porsche (model Taycan, spelled almost like Toycar) parked daintily in the dining area, like they were waiting...
MEDIUM RARE It could’ve been a triple whammy. Taal-Mayon-Kanlaon showed signs of restiveness simultaneously, but after volcanologists said the three were not related – not even distant cousins? – two of them quickly calmed down, leaving Mayon alone fuming. Otherwise, imagine the cost of...
MEDIUM RARE Two days in a row, PBBM shook hands and rubbed elbows with two of the most prominent, clubby Chinese-Filipino organizations, and twice he thanked them for their “astuteness and wisdom” in helping grow the economy as a partner of government. One day after President Marcos Jr....
MEDIUM RARE The invasion happened round about 2005 when ABS-CBN imported the first Korean soap, after which Filipino audiences could not have enough of K-drama. Years later, when Paolo was 10 years old, I heard him arguing with his father, who was all set to take the family on a vacation to Seoul....
MEDIUM RAR E That “small screen” as it used to be called is no longer small. The standard size now is 40-plus inches diagonally across, and in some homes a 100-inch set is all part of the furniture. Besides its size as an appliance, TV has grown in such importance that it is now the primary...
MEDIUM RARE Fire and Ice was a new color invented for a brand of lipstick years ago, when I would’ve been too young to use it. As my literature teacher might’ve phrased it, the name was a “reconciliation of opposites”— so who wants to kiss ice-cold lips? This isn’t about lipstick. Look...
MEDIUM RARE What fun to reconnect with Gringo Honasan, soldier, “cashiered colonel,” coup leader, senator, cabinet secretary, now looking so relaxed it must be due to his temporary retirement from politics and public office. Is he ripe for another run come 2025? He’s not confirming, not...
MEDIUM RARE One more down. June 30 will be sign-off time for Teleradyo, ABS-CBN’s news and public affairs station on SkyCable. The network lost its congressional franchise in July 2020 after its appeal for renewal was rejected. It’s not cheap to cover an entire archipelago and broadcast the...
MEDIUM RARE You may complain and they will explain but the truth is never plain to you. Why our power bills are so high – supposedly second to an expensive city like Tokyo? — is a mystery that will remain unsolved to our little minds and shallow pockets. The more you try to read how electricity...
MEDIUM RARE Gone with the smoke, the fire, the tears of Manilans who consider the Manila Central Postal Office a part of their living collective memory. Mayor Lacuna has quickly assured city residents that the post office will stay where it has always been for the past 97 years. Not everyone who...
