American criminal dramas (Law and Order, CSI, Shark, etc.) are very popular in the Philippines. And since our body of law borrows a lot of elements from its US counterpart, it’s easy to believe that what applies in the US applies here too.
But such thinking can lead to a lot of trouble, especially when you […]

Well, you can take Marmite literally:
Marmite is a dark-brown coloured savoury spread made from the yeast extract a by-product of the brewing industry. It has a strong, slightly salty flavour. You either “love it or hate it”. Can be eaten spread thinly on toast.
Yes, apparently Vegemite is a kind of Marmite. Anyways, thanks to some […]

This week’s installment of Word of the Week will cover two important words: The name of my nationality and the name of my country. Filipino and Philippines respectively.
While many Filipinos can’t spell the name of their own country, foreigners are also guilty. Instead of Filipino they type in Philipino or some equally wrong variant. Such […]

Tired with using “existent” or “existing”? Then “extant” is the word for you. It’s simply a synonym of the first two words. Or it can be used as the opposite of “extinct.” Here’s an example from M. Scott Peck’s In Search of Stones:
…A quaint notion, but one that eight hundred years ago governed every aspect […]

Sometimes I can only bow to people who obviously have a better command of the English langauge than me. Case in point: The Jester-in-Exile, who used the word “pecuniary” while commenting on Juned’s iBlog3 post. Thus I found myself thanking the high heavens for Google’s “define:” search operator. With it, I get a quick listing […]