If you’ve eaten at Jipan and tried their house tea, you might have noticed that it is a bit different from house teas in other Chinese and Japanese restaurants. It is pale gold and has this distinct nutty flavor. Speedy and I would scour supermarkets and oriental stores for something similar and after experimenting with several boxes of tea, we finally discovered what it was — genmaicha or brown rice tea. But that photo below was not taken at Jipan. That was yesterday’s breakfast — cold soba noodles which I enjoyed with brown rice tea.

But what exactly is brown rice tea? Can its meaning be derived literally from its name? Well, yes and no. Brown rice tea is made from roasted brown rice but, traditionally, genmaicha means a combination of green tea and brown rice. Its history is interesting as it reminds me of the way Filipinos in rural areas have taken to drinking “corn coffee.”

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In the wake of the Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG crises, when my brother-in-law, Buddy, and his girlfriend, Laura, came over for dinner last week, after-dinner conversation inevitably included issues about personal financial security.

Most people find it strange that my husband and I never found it necessary to invest in those private health plans that promise to pay for hospital and medical expenses. The reason? Private non-life insurance has failed us miserably in the past and we have learned our lesson.

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Remember that commercial where Mike Mikee Cojuangco says that Dream service is “Anytime, anywhere”? It was never true. Even with the recent system upgrade, Dream satellite broadcast is still interrupted when it gets cloudy. Considering the amount of clouds and rains we’ve been getting during the past couple of days, it means when there’s a signal, we try to make the most of it. After all, we pay P890 per month for the service. And that was what I did on Tuesday. Watch TV until it rained in the afternoon and the overcast skies interrupted the signal. But not before I discovered some interesting trivia.

I’ve always thought I’ve seen all the Harry Callahan movies. When the Dream schedule said “Dead Pool” would be on at 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday, I didn’t even give it a second thought thinking it was a Harry Callahan movie I’d seen before where he delivered that famous line, “Go ahead, make my day.” I didn’t realize my mistake until I found nothing else interesting at 9.00 a.m. and I decided that re-watching a Harry Callahan movie wasn’t such a bad idea. Ten minutes into “Dead Pool” and I realized I had never seen it before. The “Go ahead, make my day” line was delivered in “Sudden Impact.”

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Two months ago, I posted photos of some of the herbs and fruit trees in the garden. Those photos show the herbs still in pots and troughs. We have since replanted them, interspersing them with the ornamental plants to give the garden a more pulled together look.

When the herbs were replanted, we had to uproot a few ornamentals to give way to them. No regrets. I’d rather have edible plants in my garden than ones that are just pretty to look at. There are ornamental plants, however, that I chose not to disturb — the flowering plants that can really refresh the senses. Here are some of them. If you know the names of the nameless ones and you don’t mind sharing, that would be very, very nice indeed.

(Yesterday’s column)

A decade and a half or so ago, whenever prices of fuel and consumer goods started rising at alarming levels, people used to joke that “Si Nora Aunor na lang ang hindi tumataas [Only Nora Aunor isn't getting any higher].” The literal translation might not make sense but in common usage, “taas,” rootword of “tumataas,” is used to describe anything from a person’s height to social stature to the skyrocketing prices.

These days, with La Aunor not as visible nor as popular as she once was, people have a new version of the same joke. They say, “Si Gloria Arroyo na lang ang hindi tumataas.” Of course, there is no intention to even remotely suggest that Mrs. Arroyo, at any given time, was as popular and as adored by the public as Nora Aunor used to be. Substituting her name to tell the same joke springs from one reason only–she is the only public figure known to have the same height as Nora Aunor–they are both 4 feet and 9 inches tall–or short, depending from which perspective one is looking.

Anyway, I’m not dedicating this column to an attempt to understand why some people are short while others are tall. The claims of the maker of Cherifer aside, genetics hold the answers to the most fundamental questions. I’m not dedicating this column either to prove that even in the darkest of times, Filipinos never lose their sense of humor and still manage to joke about their sad plight. I think that’s a given. In fact, I started this column with the Nora-Gloria anecdote to lighten the mood because any discussion about the dizzying rise of prices of basic commodities tends to get depressing. And that’s what I really want to talk about–my grocery bill and yours, and the effect of seeing more numerals to the left of the decimal point even though we’re buying the same amount of food stuff and household items.

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That’s Christine Keeler in the photo. If you haven’t heard of her before, modern history credits (or discredits) her for bringing down the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.

A woman brought down a government? It’s a matter of perspective, of course. Keeler had an affair with John Profumo, the British Secretary of State for War, and the ensuing scandal was what did Macmillan’s government in. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Keeler who brought down the government. Rather, it was the libido of a government official, his hypocrisy in refusing to admit the affair initially and his subsequent exposure as a liar and immoral public servant.

But that’s getting ahead of the story. I wasn’t even born yet when Keeler met Profumo. I was born after Macmillan’s government had already gone down so the Profumo Affair was not exactly a story that I heard repeated while growing up. By the time I could comprehend the meaning of adultery and scandal, the controversy over the Profumo Affair had long blown over.

But even 45 years after it happened, it is still a riveting story to tell. I first came across it when a reader sent a bunch of VCD movies about four years ago, one of which was “Scandal” starring Joanne Whalley (before she was Mrs. Kilmer), John Hurt, Ian McKellen (Magneto and Gandalf to today’s generation) and a very young Bridget Fonda. With the number of VCDs and DVDs in the house, it got buried and I didn’t have a chance to see it until we moved last July when we had to go through each and every disc to determine which we would bring and which we would discard.

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(Today’s column)

Iconic women (iconic for the right or wrong reasons) have been on the news lately. After Hillary Clinton lost her shot at the Democratic nomination and the chance to become the first woman president of the United States, another woman rose to prominence. Sarah Palin has become a household name and she just might become the first woman vice president of the United States. I’ve read about her and, frankly, I’m not impressed. She gives a whole new meaning to “conservatism” and her claim that her religious beliefs will never taint her policy-making sounds as dubious as the hell she reads about in her Bible.

I seriously wonder whether the apparent outpouring of support for Palin is not some screwed gender issue. How many votes will she get simply because she’s a woman? It might be relevant to ask too just how many votes Barack Obama will be getting simply because of the color of his skin. In an election–at least, ideally–gender and color should be irrelevant. Qualifications and a clear program of action should prevail. But this is 2008, when elections are run by media and marketing savvy professionals who package and sell candidates like any product on the supermarket shelf. If it looks good, then, it must be good. And, without a doubt, Sarah Palin looks very, very good.

That was my first impression when John McCain announced that Palin would be his running mate. She is easy on the eye, she has led a very tame and very traditional life and, ergo, it would be easy to sell her to the average voter. If there’s such a thing as a trophy wife, in the 2008 US elections the Republican Party just gave birth to a trophy running mate. [click to continue...]

In 2003, Jennifer Cagandahan went to court because she wanted some changes in her birth certifcate. Specifically, she wanted “Jennifer” to be changed to Jeff and her gender changed from female to male. The reason — Congenital adrenal hyperplasia. She presented medical documentation to support her claim. The regional trial court granted her wish.

Then the Office of the Solicitor General said no way, that’s not allowed! The OSG based its objection on previous decisions of the Supreme Court that said there was NO LAW that allowed a person’s sex to be changed in the civil register. The case reached the Supreme Court and, a few days ago, the Supreme Court granted Jennifer’s wish declaring she has the right to be Jeff and a male. The OSG seeks a reconsideration.

Bear with the legalese, this is a landmark case in many ways.

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Alex needs Marlowe’s “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” for school. Couldn’t find a book copy. Am printing the full text from Project Gutenberg.

McAfee says “Brad Pitt downloads” has an 18% chance of spyware, spam, phishing, adware, viruses and other malware infection.