Manny Pacquiao and the Boston Celtics

If you suddenly thought the Pacman can now play center for Team Pilipinas, you might want to check his height again after he steps down from whatever it is he was standing on.

But, who the fuck cares? These are the Boston Celtics, baby. The Boston freaking NBA champions Celtics!

There Really was a Real Power Plant Here Before

It took all of two weeks for me to figure out a routine for all the Saturdays, for the next five months - go home, pick my wife up, and kill time at the Power Plant Mall. Whereas before, when I usually spent the late afternoon and early evening after Malcolm sleeping soundly, only to wake up hours later to watch TV and play NBA Live; so far this semester, we were able to catch two films in the last three weeks (Kung Fu Panda and Incredible Hulk) - that's already two more movies than last semester, when we mostly watched movies at home, courtesy of our enterprising brothers from the South (no, I do not mean Alabang).

I wasn't able to see Get Smart last Saturday, but I was able to ogle see Michelle Madrigal instead. I also saw a Philippine Idol finalist and his Viva Hot Babe girlfriend (who, according to Weng, is expecting), and one of Da King's progeny and her rumored boyfriend - a Senator's son, whose family's propensity to reproduce is quite notorious in these parts. I was not starstruck, mind you - since we started spending most of our free time at the nearest, least-crowded mall near our place, you'd always almost expect to see someone famous (for whatever reason) at the Power Plant. I could make a list here but I won't. But, I have to say that Dolphy is on that list. Come on. You have to acknowledge the man.

But, yeah. Michelle Madrigal was hot that Saturday.

Since Weng didn't want to relax and see a movie, she spent her time over at the mothership - Kamiseta - instead, whose rule of no fitting whenever there is a sale, still does not make any sense to me, up to this very day. I spent time browsing at Fully Booked and Bufini, and came up with a mass-market paperback copy of John Grisham's second football novel (Playing for Pizza will only be the second Grisham book I have ever read, the first being Bleachers), which title, according to amazon.com, will be released on mass-market paperback format on July 22, 2008; and the June 9 and June 16 issues of Sports Illustrated. I know the Celtics already won, but I am a creature of the 80s. Short of bringing back new wave music, I believe I am, at least, entitled to reminisce.

I'm Moving to Japan

Ready on the Right?

Definition

Board and Lodging, n.. see Ransom.

Nothing Left to Lose

Shadow Reads The News Today, Oh Boy

Any NBA fan born before 1980, takes one of two sides: the Lakers or the Celtics. If you were introduced to the NBA before bald heads, tats, and baggy shorts, back when Michael Jordan was just a brash, skinny kid who could really jump, you would think that in this league, only the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics matter.

Not without reason. During the 1980s, the Lakers and the Celtics won eight NBA titles between them (Lakers - 80, 82, 85, 87, 88; Celtics - 81, 84, 86). They played for the title three times (84, 85, 87), with the Lakers winning twice. Each team had one of the two best players in the league - LA had Magic, Beantown had Bird. The other players were not too shabby either: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale.

Both franchises fell into the pits after both Bird and Magic retired. The Lakers won three more titles with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, but tomorrow will be the first time, in more than 20 years, that these two old rivals will play for the trophy once again. This time it will be the Lakers' Bryant and Pau Gasol going up against the Celtics' Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

* * *

My Modern History professor (God bless his soul) at the Ateneo was an old American Jesuit. He taught history as if he were simply recalling what he himself witnessed just the day before. History according to Fr. Leonard was like a first-hand account. He was already old at the time, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone told me today that the old man was really there at the Battle of Verdun.

I remembered him last night after I heard the news that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party's nomination for US President. In one of his classes, Fr. Leonard told us how he never imagined that he would still be alive to see the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism (specifically, the Soviet Union). Well, I lived to see the day that one of the two predominant political parties in the United States nominated an African-American - "a skinny kid from the south side of Chicago" - for President. Come November, we might also very well live to see the day that an African-American is elected President of the United States.