OKAY, so the country has weathered the financial crisis without having fallen into a financial disaster. Our markets are still going, and have apparently survived the worst.

WE IN the media have been glamorizing those late registrants who rushed to the registration stations on the last minute.

DIRECTOR’S Cut: (This portion features the thoughts of DepEd 11 Regional Director Susana Teresa B.

ALL Souls’ Day used to be regarded as the one day in the year when distant cousins meet.

I HAVE this fondness for watching cooking shows on TV whether it has Bobby Flay, Giada de Laurentiis, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Rachel Ray or the exciting show Iron Chef America, I am glued to it.

I WAS staring at the ceiling for quite some time in a desperate bid to write something interesting. Soon, the blank white that was the ceiling gained more details.

THIS group of beggars is notorious for its uncouth ways, spitting at those who do not give them money. We are left with no choice but to give them what's left in our pocket.

ON MY way to the drug store, riding my bicycle, this boy suddenly jumped in front of me. I squeezed my brakes but it was too late. I hit the boy.

THE report made by the Bishop-Ulama Conference (BUC) to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week is replete with affirmations on the remuneration for a culture of war.

DRIVING down Torres Street in the evening, I was expecting an eerie silence, to see empty tables and gloomy dimness along the usually exciting area.

THE Reproductive Health Bill promotes information on and access to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible.

HOUSE Speaker Prospero C. Nograles Jr.

LAST November 1 and 2, most of us visited our loved ones who have gone to the other shore. Once a year we remember and honor those who have gone before us.

YES, my laptop has become totally uncooperative, refusing to e-mail on any server so it's back to the typewriter and back to trudging up to the cybercafe to send in my scribbles.

LAST week, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to town.