'Sassy Lawyer' archive

The relevance of homework

(Today’s column)
Everyone who has gone to school has experienced homework and projects. I have. Some homework I appreciated because they strengthened my grasp of lessons learned inside the classroom. Some projects I really enjoyed because they involved discovery–like the one about pouring vinegar in a jar with a chicken bone and finding out how long [...]

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Is fresh food safe?

Health buffs used to draw one list of food to stick to and another list of food to avoid. Under the first list are fresh food including vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy products. Under the second list are processed food including canned meat, frozen processed meat (chicken nuggets and the like) and cured meat (ham, [...]

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Halloween and All Saints’ Day

(Today’s column in Manila Standard Today. The photos only appear here and not on the print and online versions of the paper.)
There were no Halloween parties when I was a kid. There were no days and days of preparation for costumes and décor that culminated in the trick or treat event on the night before [...]

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A broadband story

A couple of weeks ago, I checked on a commotion outside the house and discovered it was the Globe Telecom people installing broadband service in our subdivision. They were accepting applications right there and then and I said, “Why not?” I already have PLDT MyDSL and SmartBro but since there is no such thing as [...]

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My bucket list

(Today’s column)
“The Bucket List” is a film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I saw it several months ago and it just seems like the most relevant idea to me today.
Edward Cole (Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Freeman) are terminal cancer patients with six months to live. They meet when they become roommates in the cancer [...]

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Understanding the origin of poverty

Last Tuesday’s and today’s columns were a two-part essay on poverty; in particular, an attempt to understand its origin from an anthropological context, vis a vis the role of government in the development of poverty.
Tuesday’s column:
Poverty and private property
Poverty is not a modern-day phenomenon. Of course, that is not the same as saying that poverty [...]

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Exploiting poverty

(Last Thursday’s column. Blog Action Day calls it a “must read article on the complexities of poverty.” Thank you. Two more articles on poverty will be published next week — I’ve already submitted them.)
On Oct. 15, Blog Action Day hopes to repeat the success of last year’s initiative to get people and media talking about [...]

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Marketing political candidates and the election

Okay, I need a laugh again so we’re switching to politics.
I’ve written so many times before that political campaigns are marketing strategies and that candidates are the products who are carefully packaged to capture the voters’ attention. You know, sometimes, it’s all packaging and nothing more like in her case. Her — the trophy running [...]

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Buy Filipino

(Yesterday’s column. The photos do not appear on the print and online versions of Manila Standard Today.)
Last Sunday, we visited the popular Market at the Hills along Temple Drive in Quezon City. Most of the stalls sold food but there was one, Bambuza, selling products made from bamboo and banana fiber. There were beautiful picture [...]

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Fixation with milk

(Yesterday’s column)
I found it strange that officials of the Health Department started checking if babies confined in hospitals with kidney ailments could be victims of the contaminated Sanlu milk from China. Sanlu milk was not exported to the Philippines. The accompanying statement of health officials clarified the issue with the admission that Sanlu milk could [...]

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