Favorites and Influences.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

FAVORITES. Bandanna handkerchiefs. Obligatory body implements. Never without one in my pants pocket. Cover the nose! Started when I was a boy, as I struggled with asthma, and then my lung got “damaged” as I grew older. I am fine now. Yet the square cotton thingy evolved as a personal “protection” vs. germs along with two-layers of socks, LOL! (I don’t allow my skin to “touch” a stranger’s skin so I don’t usually hug people.) Hence I maintain dozens of “hankies” and bandannas. 🧦🥹🧣

INFLUENCES. Kerala, a state in India that is managed as a social democratic welfare economy. From the 1990s, liberalization of the mixed economy allowed restrictions against capitalism and foreign direct investment to be lightened, leading to economic expansion and increase in employment. The state recorded 8.9 percent growth in enterprises from 1998 to 2005, higher than the national rate of 4.8 percent that time. The “Kerala Model” stays high in my book. 🍃🇮🇳🪜

FAVORITES. I am obsessed with dogs and cats. I wasn’t then although my family back home always had a pet dog. My father even had 12 dogs running around the yard then. These days, dogs and cats are my constant companions. An understatement to admit that without them, I wouldn’t be able to deal with depression (from being away from family and home-country). So I love Arrow, Ching and Fizz as my extended family. My own children. Not drama, just a fact and truth of my life. 🐈🥰🐕

INFLUENCES. Progressive Utilization Theory (or Prout) is a socioeconomic and political philosophy created by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921-1990). An economically progressive approach to social development, Prout exposes and overcomes the limitations of capitalism, communism and mixed economy. In 1955, Mr Sarkar also founded Ananda Marga, a spiritual and social organization that offers instruction in meditation and yoga. I edited Prout’s Manila newsletter in the 1990s. 📚🍎👫

FAVORITES. Old things. Antiques or vintage. Old books, old cars, old houses, old music, old clothes, old appliances, old foods, old ways. My obsessive attachment to/with The Old is heightened by the rapid surge of technological inventions, most of which are not needed. Computer/internet based writing offers many conveniences, sure. Like, we could easily google our name and voila! We didn’t forget our name! Soon, the AI homey will do the googling for us? ☎️📺📷

INFLUENCES. The Bible is a compilation of religious texts or Christian scriptures of a variety of forms, originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophecies. Believers in The Bible consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies. I was born into Catholicism so The Bible is a major influence. But I am not selling Bibles. 📖✝️📖

FAVORITES. Souperman! A true story about me as a misbehaving little boy: Once on the dinner table, I couldn’t wait for my mom to serve my soup, so I pee’d on my soup bowl! Ha! Not celebrating that crazy story but obviously it isn’t TMI anymore. LOL! I used to get annoyed when my older bro shares that embarrassing mischief with my friends. Just saying that I love soups! But soup that is brothy, not the thick kind, like chili. Southeast Asian kind of soup. 🥣😋🥣

INFLUENCES. Galian sa Arte at Tula. A convergence of poets, writers and artists that started in the mid-seventies, during the Marcos dictatorship years in the Philippines. We mostly met in Odette Alcantara’s Heritage Art Gallery, and then in several spots in the University of the Philippines campus. Some of my mentors (“koyang”) have already passed away. I am proud to say that most of what I learned in writing I learned from our workshops in those days. ✍✍✍

FAVORITES. Watching sports. Basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines. So everybody is into it: Watcher, player, organizer, entrepreneur, heckler. Boxing, chess, and billiards/pool are also widely followed sports back home. We had world champs in boxing, grandmasters in chess, and Filipinos are considered top pool players, globally. Anyhow, I simply love watching sports. Basketball and tennis mostly. These balance my mirth, madness, and moods. (Photo: MediaPost.) 🎱🥊🏀

INFLUENCES. The Beatles. Formed in Liverpool, England in 1960. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. The most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and recognition of popular music as an art form. Their music incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. Anyone who says he/she hasn’t heard or doesn’t recognize a Beatles song is lying. (Photo: CTTO.) 📚🍎🎼

Photo credit: Enmanscamera.

Compilation of short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

News: “Climate Protester Glues His Head to ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ Painting.” The artwork by Johannes Vermeer, exhibited in The Hague, was the latest artwork to be targeted by protesters. Seems like this is getting to be a fad or something. Juvenile fit. Why don’t they instead barricade a yacht, smear a golf course, or glue their head to a Lamborghini? Same message, right? Leave art alone. Activism should gain followers, rich and poor—not to push them away. 👎😾👎

Halloween time! Fun time for children, mostly. Trick or treatin’! Yet I read, again, lots of thumbs-downing since they believe this day is devil worship and thumbs-upping because they call themselves witches as sort of honor. So be it. Yet Halloween, and most other “holidays,” is essentially mom/dad’s quality moments with children. Nothing so heavy to intellectualize or politicize about. Halloween costumes to avoid The Immaculate’s sword of “correctness,” you know. 🧟‍♀️🧛‍♂️🧟

To deny the current economic murk, government apologists post memes that infer high inflation is global. Nope. Yet no way to justify an inept leadership, esp. when we talk of economics. Examples of fine inflation rates: China, 2.3 percent; Japan, 3 percent; Saudi Arabia, 3 percent; Russia, 2.9 percent; Ecuador, 0.13 percent. UAE and Bahrain are -2+ percent. Yet as the world recovers from Covid and struggles with high fuel prices, economies gasp. But it is not global. 🥹💵😟

Notice that Goodwill is short of shopping carts. What’s going on? Why, oh why? So I looked it up. Dmitry Orlov, in his book "The Five Stages of Collapse," posits that “lost shopping carts” is a result of the disintegration of society. Uh huh. Commercial collapse. “Commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down, and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm." Uh huh? I didn’t mean to overthink this, LOL!  I won’t ask again, okay? 

       How dire is the problem of “lost shopping carts,” I must continue. On Dmitry dude’s walk one dreary afternoon, he counted 11 abandoned grocery carts: Five clumped together as if the result of five separate trips; one behind a locked fence at the local rec center; one covered in vegetation in a weedy lot, as if being reclaimed by the Earth; one that seems to live at the bus stop; and one, incongruously, with a new car tire in it, wrapped in plastic, outside a school. Yup. Me, I saw one being playfully pushed by a dog with three cats riding. 🛒😒🛒

Jerry Lee Lewis, 87, was reported dead. He is alive… Careless journalism? Unforgivable is when a person is “reported” dead, with intent to hurt the person, who is alive. True story: A friend’s soon to be ex posted on FB that he committed suicide, when he was absent on Facebook for a day. Turned out the man took a break to be with their son to talk about the impending divorce. She knew it since she’s been texting with the son when he’s with dad. Reason to divorce, uh huh. 👎👎👎

“Model, 57, challenges taboos on female sexuality.” I read a lot of this kind of news that focuses on physical eye-candy or “non-standard, old-school” body shape per female sexuality. Women my age on 2-piece swimwear, full-bodied ladies on TV ads. I get the message. But can we now go back to accentuating attributes beyond figure endowments that equal market economics? What about talent, intelligence, grit. And health—chubby or thin, old or young. 🩱👙👗

Not a fan of Kanye West’s music. I don’t have to—to know that there is a Kanye in this world. He is high-profile for being him, “notoriously.” And so Ye is dropped by his corporate benefactors due to his “incorrect” mouth. I don’t really care what he said; many people say the same albeit non-famous personages. So a Fortune 500 dumped him because of what he said? Or because that’d affect their sales? How many Kanyes are there in your neighborhood? Tell me. 🗣👥🫂

I never shared my funk with my children when they were little. My relationships failed, jobs were hard etc. Those were mine. And despite my Leftist activism, I didn’t bring them to a protest rally, ever. My political angst, not theirs. Many say they do otherwise to protect their kids, prepare them for the future. Well, they will evolve and think for themselves as adults. Why don’t we guide for open-mindedness, not partisan hate. Let children enjoy their childhood. 👶👧🧒

I google words before typing `em up. Squeaky, queue etc. Correct spellings. I draft my longer “rants,” file them for days before I finally post them. Dig up more data. Yet I don’t claim whatever I post is it. Just my insight. I notice, when some don’t agree with an opinion, and run out of rudeness, they “correct” your grammar. LOL! We come from different cultural mindsets and English-delivery. So let it be. Don’t be so correct. Click/watch some dog videos, instead. 🧐🤨🤪

A lot of these “correctness” self-righteousness are deodorizing of indolence, laziness. They say blowers and weedeaters worsen noise pollution so rake them leaves and get Dollar Tree scissors to cut those brush, okay? Others lecture not to tidy up your yard or mow your lawn. Grow `em grass as habitat for anacondas, bears and zebras or turn your backyard into a rainforest? Buy disposable, recyclable plates than handwash your dishes with toxic soap. LOL! 🗣👥🫂

JUST talkin’ or rantin’ about stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago, unedited/not updated.

APOLOGIES for hyperventilating. This pollen allergy could be the most irksome physical aggravation (ailment?) that I ever had since my hospital visits in Manila in 1995 and New Jersey in 2000. I'd rather muster a bad flu than this irritation. I couldn't really sleep and I had to contain my asthma almost every 20 minutes (thanks to the nebulizer!) To make this more depressing, my fantastical superhero/superhomey pretensions are now crumbling to pieces that I'm even misunderstood or some people don't really believe that I am this “sick.” It's not like I am about to die—but it also doesn't mean that I have both physical and mental energy to go out at all.

Days ago, I thought I was fine—so I accompanied Cindyrella to some errands (mostly I was in the car). But when I tried to walk inside the store, my faulty breathing scared me. Days ago, when I refused to see some friends to hang out, some thought I was making an alibi or “acting like a douchebag.” That it was my usual aloofness and indifference in meeting people. Not that, please.

I MUST admit however that irrelevant of this allergy, I've cut my so-called social life a considerable lot. Those who know me are aware of how insanely relentless my community activities were (whether it was in the Philippines or in the US). I led a life that seemed to run between rains, a bullet train on hyperkick (sic). Hence the twin near-death trips to the ER (mentioned above) weren't so surprising. Those were all wear-and-tear exhaustion that I ignored or neglected till it almost put me away.

       These days, it's more age catching up on me. Man, I will be 56 in July! I might as well be 96. I am mentally tired and physically exhausted—yet I still got huge energy to focus inward. Write. Create art. Teach. Read. Enjoy family. I still do travel for “non-partying” leisure and to read in support of my book/s and come out to see a good show or have dinner with few close friends—but I am not The Madman anymore who used to supervise two club shows a week, two all-day park concerts a month, edit and layout a fortnightly newspaper, travel to New York and Baltimore monthly, perform almost weekly for years. I don't know. But I tend to plan out my (outside) energy and time more these days. I enjoy reconnecting with longtime friends and talking with family on Facebook. I also got more than two dozens of TV series and shows to follow, LOL! Honestly though, being with friends and family albeit online keeps my peace and quiet realizable, pacifies my homesickness funk.

MEANTIME, I don't enjoy listening to advocacies and rants and ruminations anymore, philosophies and spiritualities that I sought out in four continents and many big city lights and small town barns and bars. It's not like I am ahead of others or I already “knew” too much. Not that. I just feel like I imbibed so much of life and the world that the only way to loosen up and calm down is to write them or translate all these into a more subdued flow (like being at home with the babedawg and koolcat or cooking for friends, gardening and doing housework, teaching younger people what I know about writing etc).

       Yet still I can say, I really don't know when my chakras will run berserk again. I had a self-imposed two-year hibernation, dividing my time between Candler NC and Athens GA, hoping that I could easy-down my fire and churn out a number of writing projects. I did yet I am still struggling to focus (yes and no thanks to Facebook distraction!) 

       As I said, I don't know. Those barbecue invites and gig hellos and partytime hugs will have to wait. For now, I gotta deal with this awful pollen (allergy) onslaught in my system. But I hope that some friends and relations will understand. This is not an alibi and I am not being a douchebag (I do hate that word). I am just indisposed as hell. Allergy is such a bitch! 🥹🙃😉

About Dogs and Cats and their Buddies. And some little jokes.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

WHY do cats knock down stuff. Experts (who are cats) say they simply want to play with the object. Cats are natural hunters who have a tendency to play with their prey. When they nudge a small object with their paw, they're performing the same behavior. As cruel as it may seem to us, they're not doing it for entertainment. Cats are weird, isn’t it? Okay, you may sweep the broken glass off the floor now. 🐈🫗🐈‍⬛

WHY do cats like to watch birds? It's all instinct. Whatever breed, temperament or age— all cats are born with strong hunting instincts. Cats naturally consider birds as prey, whether they want to play or are seeing the feathery friend as potential food, and their natural instincts kick in. Or maybe cats simply want to befriend birds and teach them to facebook (verb) aside from tweeting. “Less noisy,” says Fizz. 🐱🐦🐱

BEFORE a police officer can legally pull over a driver, he or she must have probable cause to do so. Maybe the vehicle has a broken taillight or the officer witnessed the driver run a red light. It could be the driver was speeding or swerving in and out of a lane. But then, if a cop recognizes you as his/her Facebook friend and just wants to say “Hi!” that’d be okay. Probably. 👮‍♀️🚖👮

EVEN dogs that have had hearty appetites can become picky eaters, sometimes overnight. Changes in eating habits can be temporary or permanent, caused by illness, injury, aging, or other factors. Or don’t worry too much. Maybe the cat has influenced the dog about wellness eating, and all that. 🐕🥘🐕

WHY do cats knock down stuff. Experts (who are cats) say they simply want to play with the object. Cats are natural hunters who have a tendency to play with their prey. When they nudge a small object with their paw, they're performing the same behavior. As cruel as it may seem to us, they're not doing it for entertainment. Cats are weird, isn’t it? Okay, you may sweep the broken glass off the floor now. 🐈🫗🐈‍⬛

CATS react to the emotion, not desire. That's why a cat comes back to continue doing the things you told them not to do. Like sew a nice winter sweater while you sleep, reconfigure the house wifi, or cook paella when you are out of the house, leaving the kitchen in a mess. 🙀😽😾

WHY are people rude these days? There can be many root causes for rudeness, such as insecurity or fear. People are often rude after being on the receiving end of rudeness. Researchers have found that “just like the common cold, common negative behaviors can spread easily and have significant consequences.” Or maybe some people are rude because they don’t have a cat or dog. Especially cat. Must be. 😤😠😓

WHY do cats disobey a lot? Cats don't have a pack mentality. In the wild, they tend to be solitary, so they're not hard-wired to obey. But domestic cats have been somewhat infantilized. Our cats remain kittens in certain respects, able to identify their humans as “mom” and “dad.” But mostly cats disobey because they can. That’s what Fizz explains to me though she’s a good girl. 😼😾😸

THE dog equivalent of singing is the howl. Dogs are so talented at joining into the sounds of song that they will raise their voices in howls. There are lots of funny videos on the internet of dogs howling along to the singing of their owners. There have even been Broadway performances based on the howling of dogs. Arrow howls, too, but she also does hiphop and rap. 🐕🧑‍🎤🐕

DOGS can be trained to recognize and respond to shapes and to words. It takes repetition, reinforcement, and patience. Some dogs go to school, literally, to learn to read. Arrow went to Harvard Law School for Dogs but she dropped out. She preferred to learn at home, with the help of Cyd then, and now Fizz and Ching. Cats are smart teachers. 🐕📜🐕

Love. Promises. Negotiations.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written many years ago.

LOVE. How seductive and alluring and mystifying love is. Love is beautiful, it is so glorious that when it gains entry into a heart—all that is felt is pleasure, all that is seen is beauty, all that is heard is a sweet song of wisdom. And so we gravitate to love—we slip and slide on a sweet sweep to love like an ocean's tempest that crawls back to the shore on a calm approach. 

       Love heals, love is positively pro-active, love isn't immobile or inactive—it is constantly moving, finding ways and means to change for the better. Hence, we should evolve into better human beings when love starts finding room in the deepest confines of our being. Love motivates and inspires, but it should motivate us more to realize brilliant potentials instead of coddling us to daydream under a moonlight's glare. For love is real, it is not imagined... I learned a lot from life, from falling in love then falling mightily hard. In each misstep or mishap, I excise sublime lessons despite the bleeding wounds within. I grow, I find a spiritual maturation that only strenthens me than weakens me more. 

       Love is all about presence—being there, being around, being beside her. Beside her, that no matter how harsh and uncomfortable circumstances and situations that love randomly chooses to blossom, nurture, and nourish itself—we choose to stay. It's because many times we believe love will find a way. Because since love is positive and optimistic, the co-dependency only points at the good things that both can do together—from little shared activities like pulling grasses off a winter's brush on spring or folding clothes together off the dryer or choosing fresh ingredients in an open market for a paella and red wine for dinner to bigger synergistic projects like a children's book written together or a family community event organized together or simply an entire Thanksgiving or Christmas Day hangin' out with either or both families. 💖👫💖

PRESENCE, being there. That is love. Love is not just a five-figured proposal flashed on Jumbotron on a baseball game, adorned by a four-figured ring. Love is not blind subservience or allegiance based on un-reason either. Love is not dancing with her in the dark, it is walking with her in the dark—onto the light. Love is not defending her no matter what, whether she is right or wrong—because love sees not the person you had the hottest sex with or gifted you the most awesome car ever. 

       Love sees the goodness of a shared energy, not the badness of a shared coolness. So when we find ourselves sliding back to the darkness that we thought would be swept away, or we feel we are leading her to darkness—we must pull out, quit and leave. For love is not Sid and Nancy, or Bonnie and Clyde, not even Romeo and Juliet—because love offers more life than dooms life. It is not dying together, it is living together. Love must calm anger down than trigger it, love must create than destroy, love must bloom nonstop than waste away. 💖👫💖

MEANTIME, when you are in love today, savor it—continue watering it, continue feeding it. Like The Little Prince who tamed The Fox—we are all The One Special Rose that we cared for, protected in a glass globe from pummeling rain, piercing sun, and cold snow. We need that warmth as we need to be needed to give warmth. 

       So write her a poem each morning, cook her the best dinner, walk with her hand in hand in the street, massage her feet later as she rests in bed, tell her funny stories than sad tales, touch her face and look into her eyes when you kiss her, hold and explore her nakedness when you make love to her... And do these over and over and over again—until all these beautiful blessings become a part of yourselves that no matter how the unpredictable seasons of life attempt to shake love, you two are still rockin' and rollin'. 

       So love the one you're with. And be there, always be there. 💖👫💖

Compilation of short MORNING THOUGHTS on Facebook.

Sublimities evolve in us. We just have to “listen” to the insistent voice inside. As a boy, I formulated many questions that didn’t get response/s from adults around me. So I hushed, and sought answers myself. I wrote, I created art, I explored my surroundings. Next, I had to share what I “discovered.” Words on paper weren’t enough. So I made art. Music, as well. Those were better, more peaceful, and certainly a lot more effective—than talking. Or screaming. ✍️🎼✍️

Longest Christmas in the world? In the Philippines. Four months, at least, starts on September—and ends on the first week of January. Not just religious or cultural. It is also primal response after months of typhoon misery. Employees are given a 13th-month pay or extra 1-month pay in November per labor law, excluding bonus. Most workers rest from work, paid, from Dec 15 to Jan 3. No excuse not to party or eat a feast of food! 🏵🎪🏵

I was a media liaison staff for Presidential Commission on Good Government, directly under then President Corazon Aquino. PCGG was tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth by the Marcos family. I also sat with political think-tanks that ran the campaign of presidential candidates. I started my journalism career with Ang Pahayagang Malaya (The Free Newspaper), which battled the dictatorship. Looking back, I realize how different it was then. 1980s and 2000 onwards. So different.☎️📸📰

Winter isn’t here yet but I am already thinking of springtime planting. Flowers and vegetables. Hoping to do “earth romancin’” better in 2022. I guess, gardening comes with old(er) age? My most colorful memory of sweetly tilling the good land is my grandpa Severino diligently tending to his veggie patch in the city and his garlic farm in the province, and grandma Luz and her orchids, roses, bougainvillea etcetera. Nurturing seeds, nourishing life. 🌴🌱🌿

The Lost Art of Chillen. Dogs and cats remind us. No fail, right after the obligatories of morning food and bathroom moment, Arrow and Cyd go chill on the sun room. Chillen. That’s what we humans were before computer technology defocused, distracted, diverted—and divided us. Wake up on rooster’s crow, feed the animals, sweep the yard, cook/eat breakfast, read the morning paper just once, and the day happens sweatin’. We pursued the light irrelevant we waded in the dark. 

       It’s not like we don’t pursue change or “the light” these days. We do. But we seek change as a massively divided front and broken peripheries. So call for "change" takes the form of a reactive/reactionary yell. 🌼🍂🍀

We don’t observe Thanksgiving back home in the Philippines. And many other “holidays” that we do here in America. It’s fun! All I see and experience are people gathered, cool vibes converged for dinner. Although I am alone today, I am not lonely. I am with the dogs and cat. Enjoying the blessing of sweet warm light in the sun room, old rhythm & blues on the turntable. Later, I’ll share dinner with Arrow The Brat Doog, Rockin’ Riley, and Cyd The Koolcat! ☮️❤️☮️

Day before Thanksgiving. Travel time. Also, the day for many to spew grade school level mischief—insults, shaming, putdowns. `Though I don’t believe kids hurl inane asides in general compared with adults these days who throw all kinds of dirt just to be noticed or “liked.” But I get it. I get the historical backstory, Covid-19 caution, turkey drama. Politics. Yet Thanksgiving is family and collective dinner to thank the God/dess that we are still alive.

       I am spending my Thanksgiving alone with the dogs and cat but if it’d be easy to just hop in Elon Musk’s spaceship, I’d be where my family is so far away. ❤️☮️❤️

Remember the days when we had to conserve (camera) films, careful with each shot, not to waste them? We develop negatives in a dark room or wait for a week for a photoshop to process them? We neatly arrange those photographs in an album and show them to visiting friends and kin. These days, easy! Click, presto! Then we post them for the universe to ogle at, anytime of the day! So why would I be concerned if Facebook “steals” them? LOL! I still got a lot and more coming. 📷🤪📸

When holidays approach, especially if it is Christian, expect a lot of dissing, shaming, insults. I don’t get the sense of these at all. We are never contented with spewing fire over political diversity and stuff. There’s just got to be a daily dose of reasons to toss a darkness trash at each other. All I see in holidays are break from work or routinary grind of life and family/friendship gathering. Yet we don’t see those. We see more reasons to thumbs-down. Ah. 🏵🎪🏵

Reading old work and reading new work are worlds apart. It isn’t about 1912 compared with 1985. Not that I am saying writers these days, mostly 21st century authors, are less smart. They could be. The problem is "writers" proliferate these days and we are not even half-certain if they are legit or whatever they wrote, which end up in heavily trafficked memes and links, got credibility. As long as words capture the political bias or cultural prejudice, people click and share. 

       Exactly what Alvin Toffler wrote in 1970: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” 📚🖊📚

HOW IT WAS. Compiled from my previous Facebook posts.

Fiesta. Rooted in Christianity, dating back to the Spanish colonial period. Communities of the predominantly Catholic Philippines have a patron saint assigned to each of them. Filipinos treat these days as a communal party. Rain or shine, good times or bad. Fiesta must go on! Friends and families and strangers exchange fun banters: Basketball, boxing, beauty pageants, adobo recipes, and stuff. No Trump, Biden or Imelda drama, please! Thanksgiving is Fiesta Day. 🎪🇵🇭🎪

My childhood snacks. Merienda: 10 AM and 4 PM on no-school days. On school days, “recess” snacks were eaten in those time/s as well. Then, there were no McDonald’s or Jollibee, the Filipino version. So no burgers, fries, pizza, Coke in cups and the likes. There was ice cream but the “dirty ice cream” that is peddled via a homemade cart in the streets. Usual snacks were “turon” or fried plantains, “halo-halo,” fresh fruits, “puto” or rice cake, and coconut juice. 🍎🥯🥥

Canning and/or pickling are methods of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans. I am sure, canning is still a huge home-based activity these days but not how it was then. I used to watch my grandmother “canned” or pickled cucumbers, onions, peppers, and other vegetables. A favorite was “burong talangka” or fermented crab roe. Basically fresh river crabs stored and covered in salt. 🫙🦀🫙

The Soap Box Derby is a youth-oriented (7 to 20 years old) soap box car racing program held in Akron, Ohio each year. “Cars” race downhill, propelled by gravity alone. The race has been running in the United States since 1934. But are your kids aware of this popular family-oriented activity? Community winners travel from across the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan to compete. This year’s event was held in July at Derby Downs Drive in Akron. (Photo: The Detroit News.) 🚘👦🚘

Jukebox, a machine that automatically plays a selected musical recording when a coin is inserted. Many are still around, especially in small town bars, pool halls, and diners. But the young may seem unacquainted with these “strange” thingies. But, oh my, I remember those high school days. I’d take my date to a restaurant and would insert 10 centavos to play Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love” for her. These days, a jukebox would cost from $800 to $12,000! 🎼🎧🎼

Kitchens such as this in Asia, photo credit to Marcus Lacey (grabbed via Google). Wood, charcoal smear, smell of smoke. Basically, outdoors or doors and windows are kept wide open. Scent of food wafted through the next few neighbors’ houses. No prob. Summer rain would fall nonstop and the earth floor sometimes got flooded. The “inconvenience” was primal existence or day-to-day life so we were used to it. Somehow, I miss those “natural” kitchens, no e-gadgets. 🥥🔥🥣

I was born into and grew old(er) in a culture where laughter is life’s staple. Laughing is breathing. Each time people gather or hang out, jokes are tossed. In between workplace meetings or editorial deliberations, jokes are shared. These days, a joke doesn’t seem funny if it’s not “political humor,” which of course ridicules the other side of the spectrum. Or you gotta be careful with that joke. You might lose your job. Or massively insulted (shamed) online. A joke must be correct? 😁😅🤣

Chess in the “sari-sari” store front. In between moves, people would banter about stuff. Neighborhood gossip, last night’s basketball game on TV, coming elections, Tour of Luzon bicycle race, new popular movie, stuff. Fun. Sublime staple of community. The convenience store was “convenient” in the real sense of the word. Village folk could take out loans in goodies, payable on payday. People were talkin’. Humans, not AI. 📺☎️📸

Backyard vegetables. Apart from the ordinary “ampalaya” (bitter gourd) and “talong” (eggplant) that we usually planted at the backyard or “bakuran,” other leafy vegetables simply grew. Examples are “kangkong” or water spinach, “saluyot” or jute leaves, “alugbati” or malabar spinach, sayote, and “talbos ng kamote” or leaves of sweet potato, which are very nutritious and medicinal. Meat (pork, chicken, beef) and fish/seashells are mixed with these veggies. Swarap! 😋🍽😋

Leftover food. My mom used to call leftover rice, “kilabban,” and insisted that those were healthier than freshly-cooked rice. Leftover foods were dinner staples of my childhood years. These days, I notice that few younger people eat food that is a day old. They prefer “new” chows or “fastfood” offerings. When I was a boy, I didn’t trust food eaten beyond the house or those in restaurants, especially meat or fish. For me, it was all about food cooked by mom and dad or grandma. 🍲🍜🍛