MIGUEL ANGEL Y PABLO

A gust of desert wind plucked a sensimilla from the magic weeds of Guadalajara that got caught in the beak of a Manila-bound galleon from Acapulco and exhaled by the sea breeze into the firebox of a train to San Jose where it transformed into the wild cane weeds of the hills, fodder for ruminants grazing in the riverbank, and the domesticated plants that feed a nation of rice eaters.

Thus was how Miguelito became El Padrino who built a conglomerate of plazas before an unwanted murder reduced everything into a squabble of warring family-owned enterprises. 

He should have been hanged like Mickey Mouse and the puppets in the dental engine where Bertong Langis have two teeth extracted. 

Meanwhile in Medellin, a gravestone thief, smuggler and kidnapper ventured into importing paste from Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru that was processed into nose powder for a greedy American market which built him a multi-billion business empire to whom The Neighborhood procured extra strong beer, the Past Masters their picture frames, and The Mistahs their butane stove for the samgyeopsal.  

Thus was how El Patron Pablito became notoriously rich and famous whose ambition disrupted 100 years of solitude and triggered the Bloque de Busqueda and Los Pepes to chase him through the red tiled roofs of Los Olivos where he surrendered his business to the Oficina de Envigado.    

LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

"Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock", a minute universe frolicking in bat soup, Zashi Dongwu in Wuhan for the Spring Festival, COVID-19 uncooked and clinging to an alveoli, Dongwu sneezing while handing gifts to an aunt from Macau and a cousin from Hongkong, the cousin calling his sister who was vacationing in Bangkok, the sister asking her son in Singapore to bring home crispy fish skin, the son telling his uncle in Tokyo to buy a bag of Otoko Ume candy, the uncle checking on his streetfood hunting niece in Kuala Lumpur, the niece skyping with her friends in Taipei.

That was how the pandemic broke which locked down the itinerant Sir Knight on St. Valentine's Day, and the story of how a bouquet of roses found its way into the porcelain hands of an Honored Lady.          

Patient 1 from Ground 0 bruised the Diamond Princess in Yokohama and the Westerdam in Sihanoukville, love lost in the high seas and in the air but blooming in the bike trails where the Commandant outdueled both Black Kaiser and The Angel in a Netflix marathon where David Chang was spooked by Anthony Bourdain's ghost while in Sao Paolo, Bruna Surfistinha string cocks like fish drying in the sun.    

Believers inoculate themselves with cheap whiskey during the Festival of Lupercalia, and they who celebrated late were fumigated with an amber brew on Saints Jovita and Faustinus' martyrdom while those plagued pleaded with toasted whiskey for St. Juliana of Nicomedia to intervene and immunize love in this viral times.  

OYSTERS

"Oysters are loaded with zinc that helps the body produce testosterone... which is critical in regulating women's and men's libido and sexual function... improve sperm count and swimming ability, and increase sexual potency in men" (Google).

yeah, although I was not enticed by that but by the ambrosial insinuation of the Wantusawa Oyster Bar at Pobacion's Tambai Alley

delectable indeed whether raw, grilled and baked but "one-to-sawa" only for those who can keep on eating at a steep price of P50/shell

brine fresh like the deep-red tuna sashimi and Saporro Beer at the adjacent Ebi 10

those oysters, their nutrients and antioxidants, atoned for the sinful calories of an earlier pizza-and-beer lunch at the Team Insider Sports Bar, and the wine and hors d'oeuvre at the New Manila Hotel

heroic but neutralized fast by an array of burning meat at Calderon corner P. Burgos and the next day's breakfast of sodium laced Spam and bratwurst at Kanto Freestyle   

guilt gnawed at me afterwards, for failing the oysters and the price paid for it

precious vitamins B12 and D, selenium, iron, zinc and three days in the bike trail all for naught  

dulled by forbidden and lethal food 

and the beer kept coming like Noah's flood, with multiple pairs of duck, chicken, goat and reheated quail cooked in various ways

the oysters resurging on weekend, tiny pearls of pulp feebled by garlic and butter, dwarfed by the presence of grilled milkfish and squid, malaga soup, mixed seafood ceviche 

drowned in a cavalcade of whiskey sour, tequila sunrise and sex-on-the-beach along the placid waters of the Bonouan River    

A SYNOPSIS AND COMMUNIQUE OF THE BIG BANG THEORY

the last week of January was extra cold but work was hellish with text stubbornly refusing to emerge from the key boards, my dentist declining to extract a rotten molar until i can present a medical clearance from my doctor, so i chased my mojo in the bike trails and somehow managed to string together 1,225 words to summarize what transpired in Hanoi and from there concoct a 3-page communique in between episodes of The Big Bag Theory from Seasons 1-12.

like Sheldon, sudden change bothers me but "our babies will be smart and beautiful" and that warmed my heart, and had palpitations watching a drunk Sexy Cat kiss a brooding Frodo Baggins for the first time, two opposites engage in their maiden coitus during a Tequila bout, a mediocre actress/waitress from the Cheesecake Factory blurting her love to nerdy CalTech experimental physicist during a confrontation between Apartments 4A and 4B, because I am Leonard and i have my Penny. 

it was Amy and Stuart after all and they hosted a Sunday soiree, Howard is stuck with Bernadette and they were wherever they were, Raj watched all 279 episodes with me, and everyne signed off the communique for failing to state they will or won't...