The Halo-Halo Bistro

In my high school days back in the Philippines I liked to hang out in the magazine department of Stop 'n Shop Grocery Store in Old Santa Mesa. I would spend hours reading their comic books without buying anything until one of the clerks would come and kick me out of the store. Stop 'n Shop introduced me to Mad Magazine. I admired the cartoons, especially those created by Jack Davis. When I could afford to buy a copy of Mad, I would select one that had lots of Jack Davis' work. I liked his style of cartooning. I studied it a lot and tried to emulate his style. Sometime in the '70's I saw in the LA Times a caricature of Clint Eastwood in a spaghetti western garb; I admired it very much, and at that time I had a strong urge to copy his work but I was too busy with my work and my family. Just recently, I did a search on the internet for that caricature and I found it. Now that I have so much free time, I don’t have any more excuses. Here is my rendition of Jack...

Nestor Palugod Enriquez www.filipinohome.com Coming to America Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery. Today is a gift,and that's why we call it the present. Before and After the Navy. Reflecting the ocean in my half century.. This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last month of 2009. A scene you will probably not get to see in person, the sun is below the moon. The sun is at the highest that it could have been high noon. So take a moment and enjoy God's work at the North Pole. The sun and the moon captured by the ocean on top of the world. The game of Mahjong is the rarity of calling the win by dipping the moon under the ocean. The impossible odd but men would reach the moon in the last century of the last millennium. The moon looks larger when it is low or closer to the horizon, but it is only is an illusion. The distance of the horizon at sea is the same anywhere. Walking on water, you can see the horizon about 3 miles all around...

By Dr. Herm Valenzuela, M.D. Topics on coronary artery disease and related subjects come almost quarterly because together with stroke are the most common causes of fatalities (more than all types of cancer combined). BTW skin cancers are still the most common form of cancer world-wide than all of the other body cancers combined accdg to the W.H.O. This week's consultant is Dr.Giovanni Ciuffo, professor & surgeon in the Cardiothoracic Dept. at Mount Sinai M.C. (NYC); with my addenda from other refs. "No one is exempt from heart disease, an umbrella term used for those diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels; heart disease (coronary artery disease) and cardiovascular diseases are often used interchangeably," Dr Ciuffo states. "The most recent studies show that up to 50% of the world population will eventually be affected by significant heart disease," he added. About 80 M Americans suffered from heart disease in 2006 and about 865,500 died of this in...

What I consider to be my favorite watercolor is this one of my daughter Tina and Tekka, her dog. Tina and I played tennis one summer day on a Saturday morning at our local sports club. After tennis, we went to our house for lunch in our backyard. It was a nice sunny day. Tina was relaxing, sipping a glass of red wine in our backyard while Louise, my wife was preparing lunch. I looked out and saw a beautiful composition of Tina and Tekka. I happened to have my camera in my pocket and pulled it out to take a photo. With the hills in the background, I thought it would be a good composition. When I first saw the photo on my computer screen, I knew I had to paint it. I had been looking for a good subject for a watercolor painting and I knew this was it. I took my time to paint this one. After about a month, I finished my work. I am very happy with the results. Zack

On the morning of November 27, 1959 at Sangley Point, Philippines, I was very excited when I took the oath to enlist in the US Coast Guard. There were 25 of us and we all knew that after our swearing in process we would be confined on base and could no longer go home. We had a short indoctrination after swearing in and we learned we were steward recruits. I felt homesick already. I had to accept the fact that the next time I could see my family again would be when my four-year enlistment was over or sooner if found to be unfit to serve. We all looked pretty scared not knowing what to expect. We filled out more enlistment paperwork until around noon when it was time for us to go to lunch. A petty officer marched us to the mess hall. This was the first mess hall I had ever seen. Everybody formed a line to get their food. It was cafeteria style. Everything looked delicious. There were green salads, fried chicken and roast beef for the main course and assorted cakes and ice cream...

It was 1947. I was 6 years old. We moved to Santol where my parents started a laundry business. They would pickup dirty laundry from customers near us, wash their clothes, iron them, and deliver them back. Everything was done by hand. We could not afford a washing machine. The laundry business was our only source of income. When I was about 12 years old and strong enough, I helped my parents by picking up and delivering laundry. One of our customers that helped shape my life was Generoso Fernandez and his wife Miling. They had six children: three girls and three boys. The boys were about my age. Mr. Fernandez was a civil engineer. When I graduated from high school, Mr. Fernandez encouraged me to take civil engineering in college, which I did. Mr. Fernandez taught me how to play chess. When I became good enough playing the game I became his regular chess opponent. I became good friends with his sons Boy, Bert and Sonny. They would frequently invite me over to play table tenni...

Thank you for appreciating my "postings." Let me now relate a "session" among several body organ's self-importance for the body. A happy and contented wife was sleeping in bed while the body organs continued to work at a relaxed pace automatically. The Brain & spinal cord partners started the boast- "We are the most important part of mom's cuerpo. We made her intelligent- making smart descisions, controlled her emotions specially when the husband goes bonkers, make the muscles move so she can do all her work and I am the body's main computer to store all the data and info of her life," said the brain. "And, remember Christopher Reeves ?- he may be superman but was paralyzed form the neck down when he broke it!" The Lungs almost had an apneic attack and the wife coughed and wheezed briefly. I'm better than you- I make the body breathe and without oxygen you guys will not last 3 minutes! Remember Kathleen Quinlan ? She was in ...