JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Rafael

and pantas_magoria (who wins not so much for the drawing as the description and our ensuing “That’s it??”).

“Here’s my entry for the contest. I went the severe, maximalist minimalist route here. It doesn’t depart very much from the JC costume in book and movie. It is rather a reimagination. I utilized the rough edges of loincloth as point of interest in “skirt.” Then I used zippers and pockets not just for their obvious use but to lend garb some utilitarian chic that is quite rigid, becoming a nice counterpart to “looseness” of whole loincloth.”

Congratulations, Rafael and pantas_magoria! Please post your full names in Comments (They won’t be published). After we get your real names we will deliver your prize watches to Wild Ginger (basement of Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Makati), where you can pick them up any time in the next 3 months. Just show/send ID.

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Thank you, winners. You can pick up your watches at Wild Ginger starting Thursday next week. Sorry for the delay, travelling.

We have a perennial shortage of shelf space. Dating another reader would only compound the problem, so maybe what we need is an eligible carpenter.

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You are sitting on a train, and across the aisle someone is reading one of your favourite books.

Which is why Literary speed-dating is such an exciting prospect for a bookish single. The conceit is that, rather than talk about yourself, you talk about a book you have brought along…

Read Is this how to start a new chapter in your love life? by Miranda Kiek in The Independent.

Tell you what: If 50 people sign up in Comments, we’ll organize a literary speed-dating event.

Update: If 50 interested parties sign up in Comments by 11.59 pm on Wednesday 14 March 2012. We’re getting some interest from venue sponsors so just keep signing up.

P.S. Think of this as a fun activity where you get to talk about books, not as the occasion where you will meet your destiny. The pressure!

We went to the outlet mall in the Qi Pu district. The place is so huge just looking at the buildings made us tired. There is a vast assortment of brands from agnes b. to Y3, but the “factory prices” are hardly bargains unless the particular store is having a sale. After an hour of trudging we found something we wanted, not only for the thing itself but what it portends.

Now we really have to go to Roland Garros.

“Abattoir” was misspelled. We mean the place where cows, not Scandinavian pop quartets, are slaughtered.

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Turn it into an arts-crafts-entertainment center. (Like New York’s meatpacking district.)

Call it…The Silence of the Cows. That’s what we’d call it; the old abattoir in Shanghai is called 1933 Shanghai.

Put signs all over the building pointing out its architectural features, such as these air bridges built with different widths in order to control the animal traffic.

Then divide the area into spaces for cafes, clubs, funky shops, etc. And hope it’s not haunted by dead cow spirits.

Roman cats, 2009. Photo by Ige Ramos.

Cats own Rome, I’d read. I suspect that when the Roman Empire collapsed and its buildings fell to ruin, cats took over. And cats, as biologists will tell you, are great invaders. When domestic cats were introduced to Australia they made a buffet of the local bird species, some of which have nearly disappeared.

The feline takeover of Rome probably happened much later, though. According to one theory, in the 17th century shepherds would bring their flocks to graze on the grass that covered the abandoned temples and arenas of the city. Rome had a serious rat problem at the time, and the shepherds made extra money by breeding and selling farm cats to the city folk.

Roman street tough, 2009. Photo by Ige Ramos.

Rome, City of Cats in Emotional Weather Report, Pet Life edition, our column in the Philippine Star.

We’re noticing a design theme in the places we saw in Shanghai today.

Here’s a quiet nook off the main lobby of The Puli Hotel and Spa on ChangDe Road.

And here’s the main dining area at Qimin Organic Hotpot on Shaanxi N. Road.

Libraries! Shelves and shelves of books! Happiness.

We’re taking a vacation from the early Manila summer. The temperature in Shanghai tonight: 2 degrees Celsius.