Summer Solstice

on with the fun - i am back to 'hurried' writing, enjoying it while i've got free time and getting responses from friends in flips-land, i'm telling you, this is the best part of my day, after being poo-poo'ed and strained by patients. in my working hours, i lift people while keeping my temper down - oh boy - keeping my temper is the hardest to do - especially with the types of patients i have - sometimes it just gets into me - imagine treating retired new yorkers. there's a joke in florida that when "i retire, i'm gonna settle in manhattan and drive really slow and be nice to everybody."

talking about retired men and women, nick joaquin( i'm sure) is retired now and has probably mellowed a bit. but there was a time...

it is said you never submit mediocre writing to nick joaquin, if you do, he'd tear your paper and soul apart.

teodoro locsin calls him the first literary artist of the philippines; no filipino now writing matches his stories in power and beauty... and when i imagine nick joaquin, i see a fatherly figure sitting quietly in a corner enjoying beer with hemingway and you DO NOT approach him unless you've got an important thing to say. i hope i'm wrong with my impression of joaquin but you can't blame people like me who never have seen him, I see his picture alright but gawd, in person