Answering questions leads to more questions. That is a fact. A fact that only proves that man is a rational being. No other animate being on Earth is capable of that. A few creatures shows retention. But they are not historical being for historicity is not one of their endowed faculties. Only man is capable of retrospection and of getting in touch with his past. Aided by his tools, he can easily go back into yesterdays, at least for the time being, in virtuality. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity though is a tease for him to attempt at going back into time in his existential form. Be that as it may, let us be content with delving into the Baleten-on's historic past, perhaps to get insights in approximating that better Balete than yesterdays. Herewith then is my additional entry, a follow up to my initial timeline for those who want an airplane grasp of Balete's historic past. My other entries on local history are spread out in the pages of this blog indexed as ...

A small leopard cat (marae), Photo credit: scuba schnauzer @ Flickr Sleep is elusive tonight. Night owls are hooting in some distant trees. My mind wonders into some undetermined nest where some undetermined numbers of small leopard cat kittens remained restless waiting for their mother to return. Early this morning, Dodoy Pusit reported that a carcass of an adult small leopard cat (Marae) was lying in the middle of the highway just across my place. I was busy to give it a look. I just instructed the reporter to take a shovel and bury the dead wildcat. Now, as I lie down on my back in my bed tonight, Hypnos failed to pay me a visit. My mind worries about the missed chanced of getting to know the thief of my rabbits--are Marae keen of eating rabbits? My neighbors claimed that they prefer wild fruits-- bili, santoe, anungaw-tungaw, pakoe . I worry too what will happen to its brood. Dodoy described the remains to be that of a female one on lactating stage. She was trying to cross ...

     WE GO BACK to our layman's and contextual erudition about Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, this time, by taking into considerations those "experiences" of a number of people who were privileged of "straying into elfland". Consider this one. The other day, I met a weirdo for an old man who claimed that he is already a young man when Balete was made into an arabal of New Washington in 1904. I was conducting an interview to supplement the materials available at hand about my town during the time of the Americans when I chanced to meet the man. Sensing my skepticism, he qualified that the secret of his long life is that he visited elfland when he was just turning 16. He intimated that he had a special relationship with an elfin lady who invited him into her abode for a short visit. As far as he can recall, he whiled the night in that "wonderful place" and hesitantly went home the morning after. Upon meeting his family though, he was surp...

VIDA, my 9-year old daughter, came over my study the other night to ask me about the difference between "our New Year" and that of the Chinese. Now that's a though question to answer and elucidate to a 9-year old inquisitive mind. How would you talk to her about the relativity of time, the lunar and the Gregorian calendars in such a fashion that she would be able to grasp them by their horns? Ah, the dilemma of Ms. Enriquetta Vidal of the Supreme Court is far easier to handle than this one! What is new is old and vise versa. The illusional gaps between the past, the present and the future are indeed convincing ones. They give us something to differentiate, something to discriminate, some memories to retrospect, some expectations to look up to. Nevertheless, they remain such an illusion. And I am not ready to spoil the joy of this illusion from the young psyche of my daughter. So I told my daughter that there is hardly a difference between the two. "It is just l...