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Not a piece of conceptual art.

Five weeks ago we reported that two paintings by BenCab had apparently been stolen in transit. Balqis asked for an update. Voila, the news from BenCab.

“No news since Susan Baik’s email of 6 April. Attached are photos she sent of the tube, as she found it…notice that they didn’t bother to put the cover back on! Take note of the message on the tape… :-(

“The painting is still lost. FedEx rushed to close the case and sent a check amount of US$100 to LA gallery. I met with Singapore Police again last week. It’s now in the hands of a senior agent, who said the investigation is done. He’s seen the CCTV and interviewed the operation workers. He is now awaiting approval from his boss to release the report.

“It sounds like the tube was empty when it arrived in Singapore, but I’ll need to see the final report. LA gallery’s insurance company is still investigating the case.

“So nothing has changed since my last email.”

Fabulous answers, everyone, Bravo! The winner of last week’s LitWit Challenge was chosen by Antoinette Bourdain, whose answer would be “Whatever period in history would facilitate my meeting, spontaneously combusting with, and instantly marrying Anthony Bourdain”.

Our winner proposes a time travel experiment similar to that in the Terminator movies, where the indestructible cyborg goes back in time to prevent the future leader of the humans John Connor from ever being born. Except that in this scenario, the foiled embryo is President Gloria Arroyo. Yes, our winner is entry #20 from Dean!

Please post your full name in Comments (It will not be published) so you can pick up your prize at National Bookstore in Rockwell.

LitWit Challenge 2.8 is coming up.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by the lovely people of National Bookstore.

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Dean, I got your note. No problem: you can pick up your books when you’re in Manila. Thanks.

I feel like I’ve been chasing myself for the past two weeks, but I’ve managed to do some catching up in the last three days.

64. Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio

An exercise in style that screws with your head. You think you know what’s going on, and then everything is upended. Leonardo looks awful, and it suits the part. He looks old for someone in his 30s, but Max von Sydow, appearing as a Nazi psychiatrist, looks young for someone who’s about 200. Leo calls this movie Abstract Expressionist.

65. Date Night, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey

It’s bland, but I still love Steve and Tina. And Mark Wahlberg with no shirt.

Solar, the new novel by Ian McEwan

The prose is brilliant, the issue—global warming—the hottest of hot-button issues—but Solar is just finger exercises for Ian McEwan. I had the same feeling with his previous hot-button issue book, Saturday, although that one was riveting. When McEwan is at his best, you feel like you’re about to lift off from your seat from clenching your glutes so tightly. Here you feel a bit slack and lazy. Better to reread The Cement Garden and Atonement, then compare the children in those two books.

A still from the film version of The Cement Garden directed by Andrew Birkin and starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.

And here’s how to teach the ABCs to your spawn:

Saffy: Are we surprised?

Cat Brain: A Step Toward the Electronic Equivalent
ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — A cat can recognize a face faster and more efficiently than a supercomputer. That’s one reason a feline brain is the model for a biologically-inspired computer project involving the University of Michigan. . .

Today’s most sophisticated supercomputer can accomplish certain tasks with the brain functionality of a cat, but it’s a massive machine with more than 140,000 central processing units and a dedicated power supply. And it still performs 83 times slower than a cat’s brain. . .

Manny Pangilinan files ‘irrevocable resignation’ as Ateneo chair