Author: Norman F. Quimpo

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perfume
PHOTO FROM GETMEFREESAMPLES.COM
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February 27, 2024February 19, 2026Featured Stories, Life

Smelling good (without going into debt to buy French perfume)

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I used to have a keen sense of smell. It’s probably a vestigial faculty from my ancestors who, as hunter-gatherers in the wild of Panay, needed all their five senses heightened. But my nose has been dulled by age, Metro Manila’s pollution, and my own careless olfactory experiments.  Once, I almost killed myself by being...

Family and Fossils: Million-year-old gifts from my wife and sisters
A Diacalymene trilobite. You can probably relate to trilobites by looking at two common present-day arthropods (members of the Phylum Arthropoda to which trilobites belong)—pillbugs, those tiny crawlies under fallen leaves which curl up when disturbed, and the sea roaches on rocks at the Manila Bay breakwater. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
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September 13, 2023February 19, 2026Life, Science

Family and Fossils: Million-year-old gifts from my wife and sisters

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(Third of three parts) Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find, Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove I have in my hand a fossil—the remains of an ancient creature called a trilobite. This animal-looking rock resulted when the trilobite was buried and minerals replaced its body parts....

meg 4
Part of the author’s Cebu fossil collection. He has other sets consisting of fossil clams and corals.
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September 2, 2023February 19, 2026Life, Science

Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove

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(Second of two parts) First of two parts : Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find I found my second fossil—and a third, a fourth, in fact several shoe boxes full—practically at my doorstep. It was in the summer of 2003 when I was vacationing in Mandaue, the same summer my...

fossil
The stone my cousin picked up on the beach was a smooth pebble with a single corallite on it, like a flower imprinted on stone. Beautiful. The corallite-covered stone in this photo has an interesting story to it. While walking along R. Evangelista in Quiapo, I saw a small crowd gathered around a stand in mid-street. A tout was displaying pretty and strange-looking stones which, he claimed, were “buhay na bato” (live stones) that had various powers—this one, he said, would ensure one’s success as a gambler; that one would make one lucky in love. The stones were expensive. An almost round bit of fossil coral was P500! I settled for the stone in the photo which, though not as pretty, cost only P100.
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September 1, 2023February 19, 2026Life, Science

Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find

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(First of two parts) I found my first fossil on a rocky shore in Catmon, a town an hour’s drive from Cebu City.  My family and I were on a drive through the countryside north of the city: Liloan, Danao, Carmen, Catmon, Sogod … On the way back we stopped at the only decent public...

Norman
The author —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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June 30, 2023February 19, 2026Life

Old man Norman

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The way people are treating me, I must look ancient. There is surely a disconnect here between people and me. I don’t see any confirmation of how old I seem to them when I look in the mirror. Yes, I’ll admit I look old, but not that old. I’m not the frail and fragile geezer...