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Photo: Albert Einstein when he was a clerk at a Swiss patents office. Later he was offered the presidency of Israel. He refused.

Here’s a great wish: May your year be as good as Albert Einstein’s 1905.

In 1905 Albert Einstein had a miraculous year. . .he wrote four papers which revolutionized our understanding of the Universe. The papers outlined; the idea that light could behave as a quantized particle (a photon), an explanation of the thermal motion of atoms and molecules (at a time when atoms themselves were just theories), a theory reconciling motion and the constant speed of light (Special Relativity), and the idea of mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²). Virtually every facet of our modern exploration of the Universe is touched by his now century old insights, along with his later theory of gravity and space-time – General Relativity.

Albert Einstein’s Miraculous Year

It’s the time of year when stores, radio stations, and your neighbors start playing Xmas carols (“Ber na, so let’s deck the halls and ride those one-horse open sleighs with Frosty the Snowman down Edsa in the searing heat!”), and for bibliophibians in the Philippines it’s time to get elbow-deep in books. Bring out your biggest biodegradable shopping bags and fill them up at National Bookstore’s annual Cut-Price Book Sale

In the bins at the Glorietta 5 branch, from the bottom: Flashman on the March by George MacDonald Fraser, hardcover, P20; Downtown, My Manhattan by Pete Hamill, hardcover, P20; The Oxford World Classics editions of Alexandre Dumas’s The Vicomte de Bragelonne and Louise de la Valliere, softcover, P79.25 each.

The 20-peso hardcover books are those library volumes with adhesive plastic covers. Take off the plastic and they’re practically new. I’m particularly pleased with the Flashman, the twelfth in the series of rollicking adventures starring the scandalous Victorian arch-cad and reluctant hero, Sir Harry Flashman.

These two volumes are the prequels to The Count of Monte Cristo The Man in the Iron Mask. Not only do we love a good swashbuckler (Scaramouche, Alatriste, Captain Blood, The Three Musketeers), but Alexandre Dumas has some influence on Philippine history and literature.

Huh? Simple, my lips-moving-while-reading friend. Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo was a model for Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo (A man unjustly condemned, a rich mysterious stranger, Rrrrevenge!).

Beginning this Saturday at midnight, National Bookstore brings you a series of weekly contests on this blog. We’re giving away Books Books Books—new ones, with that fresh ink on paper smell!—and all you have to do is submit your answers to the weekly challenge.

New(ish) from Anvil Publishing: Cory: An Intimate Portrait, a collection of first-hand accounts by the people who knew and worked with President Aquino, edited by Margie Penson Juico. The writers include former occupants of the Premier Guest House where Mrs. Aquino held office, cabinet secretaries, heads of government agencies, members of the legislature, local government officials, ambassadors, soldiers, the religious, representatives of NGOs and charitable organizations, and friends.

Cory: An Intimate Portrait, is now available at all National Bookstores.

You can win one of five copies of this book in our Alternate History Challenge.

The premise: What if Cory Aquino had gone back to Boston?

What if, after her husband’s funeral, Tita Cory had returned to her comfortable old life? What if she never entered politics?

What would the Philippines be like today?

We will accept your answers in all literary forms (sonnets, screenplays, stories, literary essays, fake news reports etc), genres (science-fiction, horror, comedy), and media (including video, just send us the link).

Submit your entries by 10 September 2009. (I find that the less time people have, the less they can overthink their entry and the more interesting the result.)

You retain all rights to your work, but do acknowledge where the idea came from. My blog post on Nexus’s 100 percent voter registration program was picked up by a major daily—never mind that the source was not acknowledged, as we are used to that, but the information printed was erroneous. I thought print journalists were supposed to have more rigorous standards than bloggers, or at least better fact-checkers.

Readers who join this competition are automatically invited to the Good Ideas forum.

This is my philosophy of class, I only wish I’d said it.

Who said it? (Easy.)

You get no prize but the satisfaction of knowing you are right. Which is all we live on.

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Conclusion: Being right is its own reward.

A Hundred and One, the Free Press editorial.

On its 101st anniversary the Free Press pays tribute to President Corazon Aquino with reprints of classic pieces from the magazine including the late Teodoro M. Locsin’s editorial on Mrs. Aquino, Napoleon G. Rama’s essay on martial law, pre-martial law interviews with Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, political cartoons by E.Z. Izon, and Gregorio Brillantes’s profile of Rolando Galman, the other casualty of the Aquino assassination.

FP101 includes The Ruling Money—a business story by Nick Joaquin (writing as Quijano de Manila), Kerima Polotan’s critique of the thriving Sixties bourgeois scene The Woman of Fashion, and Jose F. Lacaba’s variation on Susan Sontag, Notes On Bakya. It’s a feast.

The Free Press was padlocked on the eve of martial law and its publisher-editor Teodoro Locsin Sr imprisoned. The magazine was revived in time for Cory Aquino’s historic presidential campaign.

Free Press 101 is available at National Bookstores and 7-11s. Call 844-2316, 844-2251, 844-2275, 0919-583-8487 for orders.

P.S. Just called National. This issue is expected Monday. Best to reserve your copies.

Today is the 26th death anniversary of Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr—Ninoy, who was shot on the airport tarmac when he attempted to come home from America. Ninoy’s death ignited a revolution.

To mark the occasion we think back to an earlier Filipino hero who came home from Europe and was shot for writing two novels. Jose Rizal’s death ignited a revolution.

Here is your essay topic. If Jose Rizal were alive today, what would he say about the Philippines?

Write it in the first person, as if you were Jose Rizal.

500-word maximum, we’re not reading novel-length submissions. If you have a blog, just post the link to your essay.

Four winners will be selected by our judges. They will receive the new edition of Noli Me Tangere from Guerrero Publishing, now available at National Bookstores.

The deadline for submission of your entries (In Comments, please, under this post) is August 31, 2009.

Saffy likes the Noli but is not eligible to join the contest.

Update. Contest 20 hours old and just two entries. (a) Nobody wants copy of Noli. (b) Essay too hard (Impossible. You guys like to fulminate, hence word limit). (c) People still thinking; too much to say. Ah well. But if only four people join, they will all win!

By the way in the original Spanish the Noli is supposed to be quite funny.

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Aha, the contest has picked up! Karina Bolasco, the boss lady of Anvil Publishing, has graciously agreed to be the judge. We’re still receiving entries.

Almost forgot: everyone who sends in an entry is invited to the Good Ideas forum.