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Netnet Camomot .

CLARE Naylor and Mimi Hare’s “The Second Assistant” has characters that are still buying DVDs, and shopping at Old Navy, Gap, and Victoria’s Secret. Published in 2004, it’s like walking down memory lane, especially with malls and retail stores in the US now threatening to be as extinct as dinosaurs.

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But “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” as the saying goes, since I could still relate with this particular line in the book: “Then there’s Star Books, where compulsory paperbacks have to be purchased so that you can feel fully conversant on literary matters, even though your new acquisitions will simply top up your ‘unread’ pile, which has Dickens somewhere at the bottom and the latest Salman Rushdie at the top.”

Well, my unread pile is more like P.J. O’Rourke’s “Age and Guile” somewhere at the bottom and George Carlin’s “When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?” at the top.

“Assistant” also mentions Cameron, Leo, Julia, and other first names of Hollywood stars who have remained popular up to now. Plus Harvey Weinstein who in the early part of the 21st century was one of Hollywood’s bigwigs, but is now accused of sexual abuse. Tsk tsk. Talk of falling from grace.

Fiction and non-fiction books about Hollywood can make us believe it’s the worst place on Earth. But it’s not, of course. The rest of the world has its own share of woes which may serve as sources of income, er, info for screenplays that will morph into blockbusters worth billions of dollars. Ka-ching!

On Sunday evening, however, with no thanks to a leaking roof and the torrential rain, my unread pile was on the verge of extinction, too, as raindrops fell on the cabinet where books were gathering dust. Since it was the house help’s day off, my senior-moment muscles had to remove books from the cabinet in order to make it light enough for transfer to the dry side of the room. Yup, bookworm problems.

By Monday morning, we were still rearranging the books at their new location. That’s the Monday with a million and one items on the to-do list. First working day of the week.  Whew.

The bookworm, however, would rather continue with her spring cleaning by reading books that she can send to potential bookworms. Between the to-do list and reading, the latter usually wins: Only one chapter, then I’ll work. Ten chapters later… Procrastinate pa more.

Work remains a priority, though, so, only one chapter at a time, one day at a time. I wonder when I can go back to watching TV and Netflix. Hmmm.

But reading newspapers is a must for columnizing, otherwise, I’ll be writing about spring cleaning, diets, and piggies forevermore, following the principle of, Write what you know.

And this is what I know now about the piggies in Pinas: some of them have African swine fever (ASF). Gasp! Kawawa naman ang piggies for having only two choices: death due to ASF or death at the slaughterhouse.

With all the sad news that meat seems to attract, the best source of food must be the organic vegetable garden in your backyard, that is, if you have a green thumb. But if only your mind is green, better wish for a Hollywood bigwig to see a potential blockbuster in what you’re thinking. 

An organic veggie garden is good for the health in many ways since maintaining it requires tender loving care which could be part of your daily exercise as you commune with nature and awaken happy hormones.

Green is indeed a cool color since even the US dollar is green, but its color is not the reason why the dollar has a special place in a Pinoy’s heart which continues to believe in the American dream that promises, “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.” And that grass may include marijuana since it’s now legal in some US states while it remains illegal in Pinas.

As the world continues to turn, the bookworm continues to read, and this time, it’s a book written by a green mind whose green thumb has reached out to many veggies, hoping they will stop him from comparing whose grass is greener.

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