On a damp night, you can just make out the silhouette of a man in a deer-hunting cap and a trench coat, placidly standing in a corner. His pipe is lit and his gaze is fixed on something. You follow his line of sight to find him studying a Chinese peddler selling goods across the…
Category: Menagerie
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Time and time again
Time. The word itself screams out many ideas, dreams, systems, methods, formulas, etc,. The subject of time is so broad because people talk about it a lot. One of the most obvious reasons for man’s fascination over time is the thought that it affects everyone. Time dictates our movements; we cannot escape from it. Using…
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Shadows of yesterday
In the past, a typical scene in our household would often include a small, eight-year-old girl who would tug her mother’s shirt and would whisper, “My chest is hurting”. “How much does it hurt?” “Very much.” “Okay, anak. Give me ten minutes and we will pay the clinic a visit.” I was that girl. Despite…
Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a man in pursuit of uncovering the mystery revolving around a girl rumored to have been murdered forty years prior. With the aid of professional computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), Blomkvist discovers much…
Many Young Adult novels are full of clichés and are redundant with their boy-meet-girl plotlines. Although it almost always happens, it is not always a bad thing, case and point, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. In this novel, Green, the award-winning author of Looking for Alaska, tells a heart-wrenching tale of a…
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Rant and Rave: ‘Mamma Mia!’
Last year, when the World’s No. 1 show announced that it would be calling Manila home for a month, thousands were thrilled. Now that 2012 has come, Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia has, in a similar fashion, drawn a large audience. The story of “A mother, a daughter. Three possible dads and a…
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A Mount Banahaw Adventure
Mountain climbing is not for the faint of heart. Yet, the Philippines is dotted with many peaks worth visiting. This month, the Menagerie gives you a view from the top, on a mountain climbing expedition that you may want to try or die trying. The climb Mount Banahaw is a three-peaked volcano complex located between…
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Cracking the cookie
Bits and pieces of wisdom are stored in the smallest of spaces, and one of the most popular places where we store them are in fortune cookies. In contrast to popular belief, fortune cookies are not of Chinese origin. According to infoplease.com, these cookies are actually an American invention. Fortune cookies are sweet treats with…
Everyone knows about the rivalry between Ateneo De Manila University and De La Salle University. Both universities have and still have duels on multiple stages. During the UAAP season for example, die-hard fans flock to the Araneta Coliseum and take sides rooting for their school of choice—which includes a slight bashing on the other team.…
Starving artists: we hear much about these persecuted souls who dedicate their lives to pursue their art and advocacies, forfeiting steady income and financial stability for the brush, pen, chisel and the Mind. They go on for days without food, and depend on dregs of coffee for sustenance while peddling their works, relying entirely on…