Go Slow and Easy

It's going to be a slow and quiet holiday season this year, especially in the US, where the galloping numbers of covid cases and deaths have united health professionals and public officials (except for a minority) in pleading for people to stay home and forego multi-family gatherings and travel. 

So between Zoom, Netflix and doing the stuff that gets you from one day to the next, we hope you'll spend time to peruse the stories, hundreds of them now, that we have posted since we started Positively Filipino in 2013. PF, as you are well aware, is an online-only magazine, thus all our posts are permanently stored on the web, available 24/7/365 to anyone who wants to read them.

If you're a new subscriber, PF posts new stories every Wednesday such as today. Our target readership are Filipinos all over the world, aka the diaspora, and we try to reflect that wide variety of interests in the equally wide variety of stories that we curate. If you click on our site, http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/ and click on Collections, you'll see the categories of articles that we cover. For quick look-sees on what's happening in our global community, we have our In Brief section, https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/in-brief that capsulizes important news daily. For those who want to look beyond our pages, we have our curated In The Know links to interesting stories in other publications included in our Wednesday newsletter.

However you want to fit PF into your life, we thank you for reading. We are truly appreciative of your continuing support.

Our Stories This Week:

‘50s-Style McCarthyism Comes To The Philippines By Ernesto M. Hilario

Joe Mari Chan’s Enduring Heart Songs By Paulynn Paredes Sicam

Girl Interrupted By Cecilia Manguerra-Brainard

The Happy Home Cook: Holiday Pavlova By Jojo Sabalvaro-Tan

Video of the Week : Here's a new pandemic Christmas song from Fr. Manoling Francisco 

In The Know

[ANALYSIS] What can the Philippines learn from the US elections?
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/analysis-what-can-philippines-learn-us-elections

1st Philippine-made Maya nanosatellite completes space mission, returns to earth
https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/1st-philippine-made-maya-nanosatellite-completes-space-mission-returns-to-earth/?fbclid=IwAR1DcmUPUM0lOnXFazJlvC65z3XVGFAV2x-L9iXAEzxl-FslDgvF89AjyI8

14 drive-by spots in and around Manila—for when you just have to get out of the house
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/travel/destination/12/08/20/15-drive-by-spots-in-and-around-manilafor-when-you-just-have-to-get-out-of-the-house?fbclid=IwAR2aJuQi4_szza7sQhdCGYojPNbSk6F94CRQzjgpGH5JgfcC50fAmXLaM_A

Filipino Immigrants in the United States
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/filipino-immigrants-united-states?fbclid=IwAR1Wot0dYhWAv1ikhMLJxcqKGtVxys0R4wB1YegJXigArEyxonXmBSW1sQU

What the lullabies we sing to our children reveal about us
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/12/what-the-lullabies-we-sing-to-our-children-reveal-about-us-feature/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Photography_20201204&rid=A6813A01D20D50942AFADAD6C6F1E549

Owner of stolen P10-million plant: ‘Alagaan niyo lang siya’
https://philstarlife.com/living/940897-the-p10-million-sansevieria-bg-regale-has-been-stolen-and-other-plant-heists?page=4

Here’s A Complete List Of The 46 Parts of A Filipino House
https://www.realliving.com.ph/lifestyle/arts-culture/here-s-a-complete-list-of-the-46-parts-of-a-filipino-house-a1618-20180821-lfrm?utm_source=Facebook-RealLiving&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20201121-fbnp-lifestyle-here-s-a-complete-list-of-the-46-parts-of-a-filipino-house-a1618-20180821-lfrm-fbold&fbclid=IwAR3gXfwZ5e6MjhFx7yuDpwNKoc74f-dnjAGcfVMYcpKzJJ_tLcpnraUCaQU

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An Untold Story

First a love story.  When Erwin Tiongson and Titchie Carandang-Tiongson, history sleuths by avocation, chanced upon an old but well-preserved book on the Philippines, it inadvertently opened up an entire pandora's box of information on a lady lawyer named Nina Irene Thomas of Washington DC. Her connection to Philippine history? She was engaged to Manuel Luis Quezon, president of the Philippine Commonwealth, and would have married him before the politics of (Philippine) independence got in the way. "The Untold Story of Nina Thomas: The American Woman Who Could Have Been First Lady of the Philippines” is not just a profile of an accomplished woman; it's also a look into the thrill of finding history in unexpected places.

Considered one of the wisest and most beloved sages in the Philippines, Washington SyCip passed away a few days ago at the ripe age of 96. PF Correspondent John L. Silva remembers his time with the businessman philanthropist.

An outstanding example of creative nonfiction book that was recently published in Manila is FilAm Laurel Fantauzzo's The First Impulse, a superbly written account of the treacherous murder of two young people in Quezon City. New York-based  Marie La Viña writes a review. 

The tricky issue of assimilation assumes a timely import in this time of overt racism in the Trump era. History professor James Zarsadiaz gives context and his take on the issue in "Playing the Assimilation Game."

Our In The Know links this week:

Stockton’s Little Manila Center Vandalized in Possible Hate Crime
http://fox40.com/2017/10/10/stocktons-little-manila-center-vandalized-in-possible-hate-crime/

Josie Natori: Thriving: Fearlessly Growing a Fashion Empire
https://www.facebook.com/AARPAAPI/videos/1133037133498991/

Exploring an Abandoned Theme Park
https://www.facebook.com/uniladmag/videos/3286581194698250/

How a world concert pianist, with a master’s degree in statistics, helped move CCP forward
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/274884/world-concert-pianist-masters-degree-statistics-helped-move-ccp-forward/

And for our Happy Home Cook recipe: Calamares a la Trillanes, the recipe of the controversial senator of this bar favorite when he was in prison (along with many others) for mutiny. This is among the many compiled in a book called Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen,recipes concocted by the detained mutineers who had too much time on their hands and an unhampered appetite for food and drink.

For our Video of the Week: Asian American Life's Ernabel Demillo explores the lives of Filipinos who made their way to Ellis Island in New York.