op-ed column

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 [...]

Continue reading 'Investment lessons' →

(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 [...]

Continue reading 'Overacting' →

You’d think that with dozens of cable channels to choose from, one would never run of television entertainment. You’d think that with the number of movies that premiere each week, there will at least be one winner that will be remembered, talked about, dissected and debated over coffee, wine or beer. “Hellboy 2” put me [...]

Continue reading 'Entertain me' →

As we were sitting down to dinner on Tuesday, my husband asked if I had heard about the Filipino mother who killed her three children then committed suicide. I remarked how life seem to imitate fiction citing an old episode of CSI where, before stabbing herself, a mother stabbed her children to death to preserve their being “angels”. Our younger daughter, Alex, said it was like the plot of the movie “The Others,” too.

Continue reading 'Why mothers kill' →

Sure, we want our kids to learn the value of hard work. We want them to study well, learn how to cook, wash the dishes, do their laundry, clean up their mess, clean up after their pets — but it has to be because they understand the consequences of being a moron around the house rather than because they expect to be rewarded with money. I just don’t want them to think that no deed ought to be done unless payment is in the horizon.

Continue reading 'Kids and money management' →

(Today’s column)
The last time I watched the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics was in 1992. I was pregnant with my first child and bedridden. Those were pre-cable TV days and there was nothing much to choose from. It was the Olympics or those darn afternoon soap operas. I’m not a huge sports fan, [...]

Continue reading 'Pride of the Philippines' →

(Today’s column)
Every three years, my husband’s eldest brother, his wife and two sons spend three weeks in the Philippines. He and his wife have been living in a suburb of Chicago for over 20 years and both of their sons were born and raised there. They arrived over a week ago and, last Sunday, we [...]

Continue reading 'What is pikot?' →

(Today’s column)
We had our occasional red meat last Sunday. We really wanted steaks and mashed potatoes but S&R ran out of rib eye steaks so my husband bought pork loin instead. Then, he cooked tequila porkloin, a beloved dish from Tucker Shaw’s “Gentlemen, Start Your Ovens: Killer Recipes for Guys”.

Sunday in our house is Dad’s [...]

Continue reading 'Coffee, dear?' →

Today’s column.
If you have been following the developments on the Manila Electric Co. saga, three very substantial questions are worth pondering over. First, what really is the agenda of Government Service Insurance System in its seeming attempt to wrestle control of Meralco? Second, is Meralco trying to evade answering the “syndicated estafa” charges by resorting [...]

Continue reading 'Making Meralco unhappy' →