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The Pac-Man 30th Anniversary Moleskine notebook. Coming soon to the Weekly LitWit Challenge.

The vast assortment of Moleskine journals, carnets, 2011 diaries, sketchbooks, the Pac-Man 30 is available at National Bookstores. Thanks to National for its continuing sponsorship of our regular literary contests.

We would also like to thank Collezione C2 and Buensalido PR for helping out on our weekly Jock With A Book feature.

Special thanks to the efficient staff at Collezione C2 in Power Plant Rockwell, whom I bug for the monogramming of the shirts.

The shirt is one size, too big, but you can sleep in it.

smartmark, RightClicker, dear_prudence and jayclops03. Congratulations! Please post your full names and postal addresses in Comments (They won’t be published) so our friends at Columbia Pictures can mail the shirts to you.

Thanks to everyone who joined this contest, watch out for the next one.

Have you seen David Fincher’s The Social Network yet? You know, the facebook movie.

I would’ve gone to the previews or caught it on opening day, but I’ve been traveling. Today I’ll finally get to see it. I’m of two minds about David Fincher: loved Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac; loathed Alien3, Panic Room, Benjamin Button. However I’ve seen just about every Jesse Eisenberg movie ever made, and enjoyed them all from Adventureland to Zombieland.

We have four Social Network T-shirts to give away. If you’ve seen The Social Network, write us a movie review in the form of a series of facebook updates. Post your entries in Comments by Tuesday, 9 November 2010. Winners will be announced on Wednesday the 10th.

Will be announced after we take you through the judging process. To refresh your memory, here are the entries.

Photo: Sari-sari store we spotted one afternoon on our way to the Quiapo cinematheque. Marx and Engels?

Our guest judge for this LitWit Challenge is Butch Perez, who’s read every detective series we can think of.

“I gave 3 points for characterization, 3 points for Manila local color, 2 points for style and, unfortunately for them, no one could have scored higher than 8 because I kept remembering the opening scene in James Hamilton-Paterson’s Ghosts of Manila. Most scored low in the Manila-ness criterion.

The scores for each detective:
Dorian Angeles 5
Jamila Bond 7
Bennie Arrienda 6
Turo Lucero 6
Mangtorney 7
Jane de la Cruz 5
J. D. 5
James Bello 6
Pitik 6
Sister Yla 6
Kap & Goliat 7
Lakay (Sergio Rumbawa) 7
Cristina Rivera 6
Ernesto Villegas 6

The winner is Cacs for his creation, Lakay. Runnerup is ruth (Mangtorney) because of the line “Nawawala ang Nazareno.”

Thanks to our guest judge, and to everyone who responded to this assignment. Cacs, you can pick up your prize, Blood’s A Rover by James Ellroy, starting tomorrow at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Something to read during the long weekend!

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our lovely friends at National Bookstore. The next Challenge goes online soon.

Photo: Manila in the 1960s. Your detective has to work in Manila 2010.

London has Sherlock Holmes. Paris has Inspector Maigret. Bangkok has the half-farang Sonchai Jitpleecheep. New York has Nick and Nora Charles, Los Angeles Philip Marlowe. Vigata, Sicily has the world-weary foodie Inspector Montalbano. Vientiane, Laos has Dr. Siri Paiboun, Edinburgh Inspector Rebus, Rome Aurelio Zen.

Where is Manila’s famous detective?

“But crimes don’t get solved and anyway by the time the detective arrives at the crime scene the kibitzers have trampled on all the evidence and gathered up souvenirs” is not an answer.

We still want a brilliant detective to lead us through the fetid labyrinths of Manila and its environs.

Your assignment for LitWit Challenge 3.10: Create a great Manila detective in 1,000 words or less. This detective may be female or male, a member of the police force or a private investigator. The setting must be contemporary Manila. What we want is a character so sharply-defined, memorable, and evocative of our wild and crazy city that in the future when we hear the character’s name we immediately think of Manila.

We know 1,000 words isn’t enough for a convoluted mystery, so don’t worry about plot. We’re more interested in characterization. Just introduce the detective at the start of the mystery. They could arrive at the scene of the crime, report to the office of their superior, or meet a potential client. We have to know what they look and sound like, the general state of their personal lives, any personality quirks they might have. Obviously they have to be good at their job. A problem with authority is usually interesting, but not a requirement. A favorite expression (“Elementary, my dear Watson”) also helps.

The detective/s we choose in this challenge will star in LitWit Challenge 3.11.

The deadline: Monday, 18 October, at 11.59 pm. The prize:

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

Get to work.

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An entry has arrived! triphammer is the first.

Photo: Jake Letts’s reflection. Jake is our favorite model in this series because we can’t figure out what he’s thinking. True he may be thinking, “I must get out of here”, but he makes you wonder anyway.

Winners, actually, we have two. But first, a story from my childhood (groan).

When I was in grade school I hated the phrase, “Give chance to others.” It is a literal and awkward translation of “Bigyan natin ng pagkakataon ang iba.” It meant that even if you were the student most qualified for something, you had to give way to the next most qualified student because the school wanted to avoid any hint of favoritism. This also prevented you from having an excess of self-esteem (Too late for that, teacher) while promoting self-esteem in your peers. I decided that when I grew up (which mentally hasn’t happened yet) I would do nothing of the kind.

Which is why the winners of LitWit Challenge 3.9 are two contest regulars who have won half a dozen previous challenges between them. Momelia and dibee, congratulations on winning this one. dibee gets The Third Brother by Nick McDonell and Snark by David Denby. Momelia gets Twelve by Nick McDonell and Showbiz Lengua by Pete Lacaba. (You can trade prizes if you like.) You can pick up your prizes any time at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore. Stay tuned for the next LitWit Challenge.

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This week’s Jock With A Book is Oliver Saunders of the Philippine Volcanoes, the national men’s rugby team.*

Where’s the book?

We forgot it.

That we remembered to take the picture after our synapses were fried is a feat in itself.

We are expecting a new batch of Jock With A Book photos. You’ll love them. Meanwhile please bear with this one; I know you would’ve preferred someone reading the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace in hardcover.

*Maybe we should call this feature Rugby Player With A Book, but what if we manage to take shots of Federal Naderer reading?

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Newsflash, I just got the photos of the next Jock With A Book. You need to start preparing your retinas, you don’t want them to combust.