Padma L. Perez

Our Public Market One of my most beloved places in my hometown

Friends, do you have a public market where you live? What’s it like?

What's in a name? I'm no longer calling these writings gentle.

ahem!

Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ’em.

How do I heart this times ten?

Silent and Slow A mundane, rambling, probably pointless letter. (Parenthetical notes are notes to myself.)

Back on substack. Sort of.

I hope the smashing victory of Zohran is the final proof of how popular leftism is when it stops speaking in preachy shibboleths

He’s such a role model for what a healthy left should be

So I think I write one short poem that rings true for me every 5 years. If I were to compile these poems now, I’d have less than 10! Hardly a collection, but I love it when a slow poem finally says yes, it’s finished.

Why Read: Seven Books About Our Passion and Need for Reading I have written lists like this before during all the years I’ve been writing and giving talks about why books and reading matter. But I do so now with increasing urgency as we are inundated by a ts…

Donna Seaman recommends seven books you need to read (about reading).

The United States, that "beacon of democracy", has intervened in 128 elections since 1946 to shape political outcomes in their own interests.

Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean till it boil.

On the other hand, there’s this in Allen’s Birds of the Philippines:

What species of crow lives in Baguio? I need to know. There are so many and yet the Philippine Jungle Crow is unreported in Benguet on the eBird checklist.

Lost friends over Marcos, then Duterte, now Gaza. Nothing compared to the lives lost.

Ooooh, thank you!

One of the most beautiful Filipino words I know is the one I learned from Celine Murillo-- the word "Saribuhay" (Biodiversity). You could just sense the depth of meaning of this word.

Stumbled on this and now want to learn more about—and from, Naomi Rincon Gallardo.

Packs of alumani, a local wild blueberry!

Tinudok or karyoka, a sweet treat made from sticky rice and served on a barbecue stick.

Packs and sacks of dried beans and peanuts on display at a market stall.

Forgot to share market moments lately. So here are snapshots from my past two palengke days. #baguioPUBLICmarket #keepitpublic

Malebo Sephodi proposes a simple ingenious solution! Use the tilde ~

A group of crows are gathered and chatting. "Thanks for comic everyone! Who'd like to start? Alessandro?" "Sure!" says Alessandro "For this week's flower share I brought an apple blossom! Delicate, simple in form, modest and subtly charming". They are all admiring the flower at Alessandro's feet. "Pretty" says one. "Beautiful specimen!" continues the first crow, "One of my favourites. Thank you for sharing! Who'd like to go nex–" they are interrupted by a loud clearing of a throat. "AHEM". The group of crows looks up to see another crow, perched on a branch nearby. It swoops down, something in its talons. It lands the the middle of the group in a dramatic way, to reveal the most perfect example of a magnolia flower. The group stares in an entranced silence. The strange crow declares "I didn't prepare a speech".

This one has alt text, sorry for the mistake on my part!

They say that if something is written by AI, one of the telltale signs is the proliferation of em dashes throughout the text. 😒

😂🤣

Lab-kept bumble bees roll small wooden balls around for no apparent purpose other than fun, a 2022 study reveals.

Learn more on #WorldBeeDay: scim.ag/4dAwCuD

But… what if I loved and used em-dashes galore long before AI crashed the party? 😢

Painting featuring a close-up view of a slightly open white shell, vertically presented

Slightly Open Clam Shell, 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe #WomensArt

Why is it still like that? Huhu. I wish ob-gynes in particular could be more caring about women’s rights and dignity.

Yes. Life promised.

Oh no! The worst!

Read this in Taglish. 🇵🇭

LF: feminist ob-gyne who understands and undermines the ways in which patriarchal medical systems harm women’s bodies and minds. Is that too much to ask?!