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Our favorite Steven Soderbergh movie is one of his earliest: King of the Hill, in which little Jesse Bradford is left to fend for himself in a fleabag hotel during the Depression. Based on the memoir of A.E. Hotchner.

We asked readers what advice they would offer if they ran into themselves at age 10. Read the entries.

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Hey Jessica. I know, I get that a lot! Other than getting a bit taller, we look the same. It sounds like doom right now, but later you’ll be grateful. Listen carefully, there are things I have to tell you about our life, vital stuff…

On second thought, you don’t have to hear it. Carry on exactly as you’re doing. There’ll be crappy parts, but when we get to my age we will look back and laugh at them. Umm, yes, but apart from Starfleet General Order #1, it’s what makes us us, you know what I’m saying? Seriously, I almost wish there were more crappy parts so we’d have more material. Well, they don’t get us now, and they still won’t get us in the future, but some people will. I’d say don’t worry so much, but see, our neurosis kind of…becomes a career. So don’t get too sane, kid.

Oh yeah, he’s going to make some excellent movies after Take the Money and Run. The Lord of the Rings will be filmed, and it will be wonderful. Dune, not so much, but still very interesting. Do me a favor and buy every Laurie Colwin book you see, because later it’ll be harder to find copies. Read everything by James Salter and tell everyone to read him. Don’t worry, nobody understands Finnegan’s Wake.

When you start working, save money and buy stock in a company in Cupertino called Apple. Hang on to your stock even when it seems to fall apart and the guy gets eased out. He’ll be back.

Wait, here’s something. When she graduates from college, start hounding our best friend to get medical exams every year, okay? Her lungs in particular. Write that down.

When you discover Rickie Lee Jones, look up one of her associates, Tom Waits, so we can get started sooner. Don’t lose faith in Goran Ivanisevic, your belief will be redeemed. And on the year it is redeemed, you will spot a player who causes you to leap out of your seat and call your friends yelling, “Did you see that?” Bet on him. His record the following year will suck, but you will have an excellent five-year run after that.

When you book hotels on the Internet—yes, you’re going to travel a lot—never believe the words “centrally located”. If you still decide to go to Duino, get off the train at Monfalcone, not Trieste central station. Yup, we’ve been to Venice five times. Try to pay in cash, plastic will cost you.

You’ll be fine. Always trust your first impression of people. You’ll do stupid things but you’ll live, and anyhow embarrassment is better than regret. Yes we’re actually happy, and complaining is our way of saying it without being annoying. And cats are brilliant.

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The winners of the Weekly LitWit Challenge 7.0 are: noelz, jeromeshuny, evan, greeneggsnham, kratienza, stellalehua and Momelia.

But we only have one prize, so we go into Sudden Death! One winner gets the book, the runners-up get consolation prizes, and if for some reason the winner cannot fulfill his/her obligations etc etc.

Answer the same question in ONE SENTENCE. You have 24 hours. Go!

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

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We just saw Zombadings for the fourth time and we’re in a good mood so we’re not even going to try to name one winner. The winner iiissss. . .Everyone who joined the Sudden Death competition: noelz, jeromeshuny, evan, kratienza, stellalehua and Momelia. Please post your full names in Comments (They won’t be published) and we’ll alert you when your prizes are ready (and tell you what they are!).

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

Here we are at my sister’s birthday lunch, which also marked the first time she’s been out of the house in over a week. Doctor’s orders: She had to be locked up to keep her from sneaking off to the office. Because she just found out that she’s pregnant! My niece Koba Stalin Mika, anticipating competition, has already struck up an alliance with me. Clever kid.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Massive foreheads! Look away!

Champorado with tuyo is comfort food. Guinataan is comfort food. It’s what you have when you’re glum or stressed-out or when Roger Federer is leading Novak Djokovic two sets to love then up a break in the fifth set at the US Open semis, and the Djoker somehow slips through. Preferably in a bowl that you can hug as you rock back and forth in fetal position, humming to yourself. Coke and Chippy is Roby’s comfort food. Teddy Boy’s comfort food is…food (Though he is way fitter these days so he must not need it).
 

Laing is not comfort food to me; laing is more like a blood transfusion. I will take a plate of shredded gabi leaves, coconut milk, pork and searing hot chilis over any ten-thousand-dollar ten-course molecular gastronomy showcase served in test tubes any time. (I don’t see why my food has to come out of an autoclave.)

Laing is my madeleine out of Proust. I cannot see a tray of laing behind the glass in a turo-turo without becoming eight again. It is my time machine, my childhood, my mom. 

Photos from My City, My SM, My Cuisine at SM City Naga, Camarines Sur. Of course the main event was the Laing competition. All photos by Wayne Lim. Thanks, Mang Wayne!

Read Laing is my I.V. drip, my column this week at interaksyon.com. Should be up later today.

Dear Auntie Janey,

Yours sincerely,
Worried Sister

Johnny Depp is not an eldest child.
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The invitation said, “Wear dots.” The Swatch Interactive Billboard at Greenbelt 5 was done up in dots.

The food followed the dot theme.

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The one thing we were never taught in elementary school was how to be a skeptic. We were trained to believe, obey and never question authority. In effect school was an extension of church (they are run by religious orders after all); those who dared suggest that the teacher was missing something were condemned as walang modo (uncouth), suwail (willful) and worst of all, pilosopo. Yes, to be “philosophical” — to ask how the teachers arrived at their knowledge and why we should accept it as true — was bad, the equivalent of heresy.

It was not until I moved to a public high school — Philippine Science — that I realized it is not only right to question long-held “truths,” it is the responsibility of every intelligent person. What is your evidence? How do you know? If we didn’t ask questions we would still be deluding ourselves that the sun and planets revolve around the earth.

Now that no one is going to make us stand in a corner or write “I will believe what my teacher says” on the blackboard 500 times, let us review some “truths” we were trained to accept for the simple reason that teachers, priests, parents and other authority figures said so.

Read 25 “truths” we put through the wringer in Emotional Weather Report in the Philippine Star 25th anniversary issue.