Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 361

It's my Jedi Master's birthday. Today Teddy-Wan Kenobi is the Oracle.

Photos from the book, Heroes. My Jedi Master, publisher and surrogate parents (both of them) Teodoro Locsin, Jr is 62 today. Happy Birthday, Teddy-Wan Kenobi! I was leading a quiet, one might say idyllic existence, plaiting my hair in Naboo or chasing whomp rats in the deserts of Tatooine, when I met the Jedi Master. [...]

LitWit Challenge 3.11: Stabbed in the heart (Updated with a message to our past winners.)

We like all the books we give away in the Weekly LitWit Challenges, but this one is particularly awesome. The hardcover edition of Lydia Davis's exquisite short, short, short stories. You want to own this book. You want to read every word and punctuation mark. It is genius. And all we want for it is [...]

Pareng Bill

Three hours before former US President Bill Clinton's talk at the Manila Hotel, all the ingredients for disaster were in place. Travel advisory in the wake of a US terror alert, check. Heavy downpour and streets beginning to flood, check. Traffic jams in the areas leading to the venue, check. (On a personal note, massive [...]

Status: You have won our Social Network review contest.

The shirt is one size, too big, but you can sleep in it. smartmark, RightClicker, dear_prudence and jayclops03. Congratulations! Please post your full names and postal addresses in Comments (They won't be published) so our friends at Columbia Pictures can mail the shirts to you. Thanks to everyone who joined this contest, watch out for [...]

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Does anyone have a line to the Converse people? Avez-vous leur nombre?

Gazzarella!

Even my cats are complaining of alienation, so here are two cat-related news items for the cat people. (No, Gazzarella is not made of Gaz Holgate.) 1. Scientists learn physics behind how cats drink water without getting wet By Marc Kaufman at the Washington Post Four researchers have painstakingly filmed, analyzed and determined how it [...]

Straight guy readers, here's your columnist. (And he answered your questions.)

Straight guy readers, we know you're out there, and we know your relationship with this site is in crisis. There was no problem when we started covering rugby a few months ago—you approve of sports in which guys hit each other. But then we started featuring individual rugby players and squealing over them and things [...]

Straight guy readers, here's your columnist.

Straight guy readers, we know you're out there, and we know your relationship with this site is in crisis. There was no problem when we started covering rugby a few months ago—you approve of sports in which guys hit each other. But then we started featuring individual rugby players and squealing over them and things [...]

Ex-President Clinton: "On the whole it wasn't a good advantage for the Philippines to have been colonized by the US."

That was my Wow moment of the Clinton appearance, and it was in answer to a question I found strange and inappropriate. Philippine Star headline: Clinton makes pitch for VFA. During the Q&A that followed the former US president's half-hour talk, moderator Maria Ressa asked this question. "You've been a long-time observer of the Philippines. [...]

Embraceable humanity

Former US President Bill Clinton's talk at the Manila Hotel was entitled "Embracing Our Common Humanity." Granted, some humanity is more embraceable than others. (I am channeling Noel. And how.) One of the Winklevii Ayala Corp president Fernando Zobel arrived carrying a large umbrella—because he drove himself. No bodyguards (unless they were a crack ninja [...]