Dateline: 28 November 2017, Manila, PHL

Self-motivated. Arf!

Random number between 1 and 140. Page 45 of It's a Dog's Life: A Canine Cartoon Collection (edited by Mark Bryant) features spot cartoon by Stan Eales of a variation of the classic carrot visual joke.

Acquisition: Book Sale, SM City San Lazaro, 28 November 2017

Dateline: 24 November 2017, Pasay, PHL

Sweetness to the sun

Non-random selection. November 24 in A Bloom a Day: A Fortune-Telling Birthday Book (photography by Ron Van Dongen) features Lathyrus odoratus 'Scarlet' (Sweet Pea). "Like the sweet pea climbing to reach the sun, you like to feel that you are heading in the right direction," the fortune says.

Dateline: 16 November 2017, Pasay, PHL

Kells' carpet-cross

A book about the Book of Kells (published by Studio Editions Limited, London, UK) was not paginated. Random number between 0 (for the "Introduction") and 28 (total number of plates in this work), Plate No. 8 contains the "Eight Circled Cross," which is the "only example of a 'carpet-cross' in the Book of Kells, though several similarly decorated simple crosses occur in the Book of Lindisfarne."

Dateline: 12 November 2017, Pasig, PHL

Manila Hotel got style (finally)

Philippine Panorama, the Sunday magazine supplement of the Manila Bulletin, was notorious for some unappealing things that land on its pages, not least of which was the back-cover full-page ad of the Manila Hotel, a printed injustice to the architectural glory of the institution. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw this - sure, it needs a bit more effort, but this is assuredly a good start.

Dateline: 02 November 2017, Pasay, PHL

Prickly, batty

Random number between one and 368. Page 267 of David Attenborough's Life on Earth: A Natural History depicts the symbiotic relationship between bats and the saguaro cactus, its caption headlined with "A cactus responds to a bat's needs."

Based on Attenborough's documentary series on the BBC, published by the Reader's Digest Association, Ltd. as an augmented and enlarged edition of the original William Collins/BBC.