[COLUMN] Greetings for a happy, safe, and healthy 2022!
FOR my New Year’s message, I’m borrowing Fr. Terrence Klein’s reflection in America Magazine on the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” As many of you may know, this 1946 American…
Category: Life & Style
Covering the week’s most noteworthy life & style news stories impacting the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
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[COLUMN] Queries from you
IS Omicron deadly? There were almost 230,000 COVID-19 cases last Monday, December 27 and more than 80 percent of them Omicron. There were 823 new deaths that day, 836,605 total…
Jumping at midnight, driving away evil spirits: Filipino traditions to welcome the new year
THE New Year has always been a countrywide celebration that is nothing short of fun, dynamic, and loud. Filipinos love to welcome the new year with as much fanfare as…
CDC shortens recommended COVID-19 isolation time to 5 days
THE Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by five…
[COLUMN] Planned obsolescence
NOW is a good time to ponder about the end. It is a grim thought, I admit, but it seems appropriate when taking stock of the year about to be…
Covered California deadline approaches as omicron surge underscores benefits of health insurance
SACRAMENTO — With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant across the state, Covered California is urging uninsured and eligible individuals to act now so that they can have…
Slow but steady rise in eviction filings – no ‘tsunami’ yet
By Pilar Marrero/Ethnic Media Services SINCE the federal moratorium on evictions ended in late August, court eviction filings by landlords have increased across the country, particularly in cities with the…
[COLUMN] Christian Bables wins best actor at MMFF, ‘Big Night’ wins best picture
IT was a fruitful night for “Big Night,” as it won a bevy of awards at the recent Metro Manila Film Festival 2021’s Gabi ng Parangal. The Jun Robles Lana-directed…
Omicron and a collapsed health care system: this is how COVID closes 2021
Almost two years after COVID-19 pandemic started, 270 million people have been infected with the virus and 5.3 million have died worldwide. Cases in the United States exceed 50 million,…
What is life? My 2021 Christmas column
WRITING this Christmas column is neither easy nor difficult. However, it required deeper thinking after almost two years of coronavirus-induced changes in our lives. There is a myriad of unexpected…
[COLUMN] The gift of family
A warm Christmas greeting to you and your families! I hope you’re enjoying the Christmas season and keeping yourselves in good health. This Sunday’s Feast of the Holy Family falls…
Dissecting the classic Noche Buena spread
IF the long list of Christmas trends and traditions was any indication, Filipinos love celebrating the yuletide season. Be it decorating the house with lanterns and ornaments as early as…
Mon David’s homecoming concert: The floodgates of his creative intelligence, unleashed
“Mon’s performance at Catalina was the alarm clock [that] my jazz spirit needed to wake from its catatonic dormancy throughout the pandemic! It was a great jolt of jazz as…
Philippine Airlines wins US court approval of recovery plan
Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York has approved its Plan of Reorganization (the “Plan”). PAL filed a voluntary petition…
Kick It California is here to help Californians quit smoking — and improve their mental and physical health
California is once again emerging as a leader in the fight against Big Tobacco with the California Smokers’ Helpline, renamed Kick It California — the state’s official effort to help…
[COLUMN] 4th COVID-19 shot?
OMICRON is super-contagious and skyrocketing across the nation, while the virus continues to replicate and mutate mostly in the bodies of those more than 50 million unvaccinated people in the…
[COLUMN] Remember the wonder
YEAR after year without fail at around this time, December days and nights seem to slip from our grasp like fine grains of sand. The hours seem to hurtle through…
Simbang Gabi: A revered Filipino Christmas tradition
Contributed by Manny V. Ilagan SIMBANG Gabi, which literally means “evening or night Mass,” is a Filipino Christmas tradition. As a devotional practice in the tradition of the novena, it…
[COLUMN] Greetings!
WE’RE in the fourth week of Advent, and it will be Christmas next week! Are you prepared? Prepared to welcome the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus? As…
Daniel Corpuz finds the sweet scent of success after ‘School of Chocolate’
LIKE many others in the food and hospitality industry, Filipino American Daniel Joseph Corpuz lost his job as the global pandemic began to wreak havoc last year. “Inisip ko kung…
[COLUMN] Miss India Harnaaz Sandhu is new Miss Universe
MISS India Harnaaz Sandhu, a Bollywood actress and model, was crowned as the 70th Miss Universe Pageant winner in rites held in Eilat, Israel on Sunday, December 12. She becomes…
California reinforces indoor mask mandate amid COVID surge
STARTING Wednesday, Dec. 15, California will require face masks and coverings while indoors following a sharp spike in coronavirus cases since Thanksgiving. While individual counties — like Los Angeles and…
How LA, calling the shots on school vaccine mandates, can lead the way on COVID rules
ON March 31, 1977, as a measles epidemic swept through Los Angeles, the county health department issued an ultimatum to the parents of the county’s 1.6 million schoolchildren: Get your…
[COLUMN] A Christmas story: The Innkeeper’s untold tale
JOSHUA was excited with his new job at the inn. It sure beats having to herd sheep this time of the year when the cold nights chilled his bones on…
Experience a true Filipino Christmas: Celebrating the festive spirit of home with the joyful mini parols
In the Philippines, Christmas is always a reason for vibrant celebrations. This serves as the time of the year when people often come together to catch up and enjoy the…
[COLUMN] How we can be joyful
JOY! It’s the theme for this Third Sunday’s Advent Liturgy. As a matter of fact, the third Advent candle symbolizes hope. And so, this Sunday’s Scriptures speak loudly about it….
[COLUMN] Cruelty to our planet
IT does not take an Einstein to understand that clean air, pure water, and unpolluted environment are conducive to health and longevity. In certain parts of the world, like in…
Should travelers cancel holiday flight plans? US tightens travel measures amid omicron
THE coronavirus omicron variant couldn’t have come at a worse time for travelers planning to hop on planes for the holiday season. The highly contagious COVID-19 variant has made its…
US tightens travel restrictions over omicron variant
THE United States is going to require all air travellers entering the country to show a negative COVID-19 test performed within one day of departure in an attempt to slow…
[COLUMN] The second candle of the Advent wreath: The light of faith
WE are now journeying into the Second Sunday of Advent. Last week, we lit the first candle that symbolizes hope—hope for the world and the Church in these challenging times!…