Category Daily

Notes from Manila

The Manila Hotel is a fine old place. True, it tends to run out of hot water in the mornings and the wifi was wonky until a lovely young woman at the concierge desk gave me a tip for resetting…

In Manila

When you get up at 5, having given up on sleep, it is a LONG TIME until the mall opens at 10! I made my way to said mall when it opened and it did not disappoint–it was crazily enormous,…

Scenes from Manila

The hotel is full of Jehovah’s Witness convention-goers. At dinner the first night, a group of women are in the Chinese restaurant, asking for cheese wontons. Trying to explain to a mystified waiter what they are. To no avail, apparently.…

Prayer for our times

From Sojourner’s Voice of The Day: On The Ground Put prayers on the ground, so many prayers that not a drop of blood can find its way to the earth, not a drop can leach into the soil or soul.…

New love

Thanks to my niece and a favorite, if as-yet-unmet, cousin, I am now officially obsessed with John Green (who wrote The Fault in Our Stars and a lot of other stuff I am about to read). I love the FAQ…

Newfound poem

Read the old poets, my son and you won’t regret it Between the cobwebs and the rotten wood of ships stranded in Purgatory that’s where they are singing! ridiculous and heroic! From The Unknown University, poems by Roberto Bolano