MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza It’s a good habit to remind oneself that breaking a bad habit or habits is a positive way to start the year. Better yet, to begin by cultivating a good habit. “Save” is the first commandment. Save for a rainy day, a stormy day, a sunny day with LPA. With inflation...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, the passing of football legend Pelé, 82, who put Brazil on the map of the world by revolutionizing the sport. Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, the passing of retired Pope Benedict XVI, 95, nine years after he walked away from the Vatican as leader of...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza To quote the novelist Louise Penny as spoken by a character in one of her books: “What’s a year? Why do we need a new year? Is the old one broken?” Clocks and calendars and countdowns, the new year has crept up on us and it’s now three days old. We are all three...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza It’s sooner than you think, Jan. 1, 2023. Now’s the time to clear out the junk, to unclutter and declutter, out with the old, the useless, the dust-covered, and make room for new acquisitions, possessions, treasures. Most Filipinos hope their lives will be better next...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Vice President Sara Duterte said it best, “May God have mercy on his soul.” Her father, the former President RRD, was kinder in expressing his condolences to the family of the late CPP-NDF leader who was his professor once upon a time. Mr. Duterte called for an end to...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza With a snap of the fingers, Christmas Day has come and gone. It has always mystified us professional revelers if it was God’s plan to decree Christmas and New Year as a series, one following the other in a span of seven days to the dot. What would earthly time be like...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Stealthily, as if no one’s watching, it’s arriving, tonight. Christmas Eve, the magical moment of midnight signaling the arrival of the Baby who was born that he might die 33 years later, a common criminal condemned by the very people who had hailed him as their king....
Medium Rare Jullie Y. Daza What have we done to Christmas? Jammed in traffic. Crushed by fellow travelers at the pier, the airport, bus terminals. Flight schedules altered here and there. Police presence reminding the guilty and innocent of crime and other dangers. High and higher prices at the...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza In the olden golden days the expectation was for Christmas to cast its spell, a spell being an action that alters the dimensions of time-space-matter. Christmas, it is said, is the day that holds time together. The ghosts of Christmases past linger, touching the present...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Nida left her house in Marikina at 7 a.m. for work in Intramuros, Manila, boarding her faithful motorcycle and hoping for a smooth, quick ride. She reached her destination two hours later. “To think I was on a bike!” she exclaimed in exasperation. What if she had been...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Why is rice so expensive? Because our farmers aren’t planting enough, because the costs of planting are going up, and because, even as that is happening, smugglers are bringing in imported rice and hoarding tons for bigger profit margins. According to Cathy Estavillo,...
MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Undoubtedly THE cultural event of the year, the staging of Puccini’s great opera, Turandot, a lavish production that raises the bar and audience expectations from now on. For the 700 pupils that VP and Education Secretary Sara Duterte brought with her to the dress...
