The one with all the questions

"Nanay, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"If there was a planet as big as the sun but covered with water, and near the sun, and the water was evaporated into the sun, would the sun burn out?"

The one with the Sontag book

Decided to leaf through Reborn, the first volume of Susan Sontag's published journals, while cooling down from weekend chores. It was part of last month's haul from a used-books store.

The first line set the tone and it was rather depressing:

Quote: Chesterton #1

"I felt it in my bones; first, that this world does not explain itself... Second, I came to feel as if magic must have a meaning, and meaning must have someone to mean it. There was something personal in the world, as in a work of art; whatever it meant it meant violently. Third, I thought this purpose beautiful in its old design, in spite of its defects... Fourth, that the proper form of thanks to it is some form of humility and restraint... and last, and strangest,... that in some way all good was a remnant to be stored and held sacred out of some primordial ruin."

G.K. Chesterton, The Ethics of Elfland

The one with my thoughts on homosexual love

I've been wrestling with long-held beliefs on the issue of homosexual love. Most portrayals of affection between gay people that I've seen in movies or in written fiction are of the sexual kind, and I've always found it difficult to wrap my head around the mere idea.

But once in a while, I see or read about two people who are so alike (biologically) that they couldn't be together, and

The one with The Hobbit and Lolo's death

I read The Hobbit in a hospital, many years ago, during a shift I took turns in with cousins looking after my Lolo Jose, who was very old and sick.

It was 1991. I was a very timid 13-year-old. As a child I had always found books comforting, and many an undesired social situation or uncomfortable phase were eased through with the excuse of a book in hand.

On that particular week, though,