After seven years of snubbing him, I’ve started reading Stephen King again. I know lit high brow types look down on him. When he the National Book Foundation gave him the Distinguished Writer Award for his contributions in American letters in 2003, there was a lot of furor and dismay, although if you think about it, King has been getting attention ( Read more... )

Ira Levin died last week, the week I got my Mia-Farrow-in-Rosemary's Baby's-inspired haircut. What a creepy coincidence. He was 78. For the non-readers, Levin was the writer of the pop lit novels like The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby. (See, if there was no Levin, there would be no novel, no Roman Polanski movie, etc etc. He also wrote TV and ( Read more... )

For the first time this year, I was really, truly sick. It’s the kind of illness where I had to be bedridden for days. At first, I thought it was an allergy, that somehow, I developed an insane reaction to my brother’s lasagna. But the doctor who inspected me said what I had was measles and I had to stay in bed for at least five days. The pink ( Read more... )

Overall, it was a disappointing day. I woke up two hours before my usual wake-up time, a plunderer was freed  , the weather was crazy, my day off tomorrow was cancelled, and I, as I write this, am still slightly unwell. I was practically coughing my guts out, although my condition, in Day 3, was better than last Wednesday. I must not permit myself ( Read more... )

An explosion rocked a popular shopping complex here, just about four hours ago.  (I wasn’t there nor my friends and relatives.) At first, we in the reporting world thought the blast was caused by a gas leak; but now, it appears that it’s a bomb and police and government officials are saying that it’s a terrorist attack. The last body count: at ( Read more... )

IC is probably the most boring city on the planet. There was nothing to see, nothing to do. Even the natives thought so and discouraged me from staying long in their city. Hop a boat ride to G. Island or B City, they told me. It's more interesting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed some of it (ie, the cousins, speaking the dialect, the food). I also learned ( Read more... )

I badly needed to talk to R this afternoon but he was too busy. E was in bed, under covers, and J was on the beach. Where is everyone?

The best thing about last Friday - my first Friday night out in years that did not involve work - was the music and seeing Bee after a long, long time. I feel guilty about my infrequent calls to her and I'm ashamed ( Read more... )

My grandfather died last Friday. My mother was prepared for the death of his dad, saying it was for the better. He was 96. When he heard the news, Lab said he imagined our grandfather being lifted into the sky by red balloons. We were never close; my grandfather lived too far from us and by the time I was born, Alzheimer's was slowly engulfing him ( Read more... )

A colleague laughingly pointed out this bit of news to me and warned me about my bookstore visits (I’m summarizing):

A man was put to jail after he approached, fondled, and kissed an 11-year old girl browsing in the children’s lit section of a popular bookstore chain here. The man now stands to face acts of lasciviousness and child abuse charges.

( Read more... )

I was expecting plenty of sunshine today and was dreading the prospect of being out in the sun for hours because of work. I was prepared, though: I got water and a new brown tweed hat. We were all waiting for the apocalypse, really, and the people at the office were thinking and joking about leads like "City hunkers down for judgment day."  Well, ( Read more... )