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Penguin Decades: 80s features cover artwork by John Squire, formerly of The Stone Roses.

In the Smithsonian: How the Paperback Novel Changed Popular Literature.

Using nail scissors I did surgery on my hat and replaced the flower with a cat pin. Now I am prepared for the Australian sunshine. Going to Melbourne and Victoria on Thursday.

(Newsflash: It’s cold and rainy in Melbourne. Yay! I have silly wellies.)

‘What happened to your other hat, the green one?’ It didn’t really fit, so I gave it to the marvelous Marion in New Zealand.

‘Which glasses are you going to wear with your new hat?’ These. The ones I found in a street market in Auckland; my optometrist made me prescription shades.

By the way if you want to buy a signed copy of Twisted 8 1/2, there are nine copies available at my optometrist’s. That’s Nella Sarabia, UP Shopping Center, Diliman QC, telephone 4355685. Get yourself a pair of sunglasses for the summer, she’s got the flexible bendy frames.

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Ned has a funny election-related story. He spotted a group of street urchins outside a church and he couldn’t resist asking, “Nakaligo na ba kayo sa dagat ng basura?”

The urchins said, “Hindi ho, si Villar lang yon. Doon kami naliligo sa poso.”

I issue a limited number of direct compliments every year; I prefer to give backhanded compliments, or as the good people of Merriam-Webster call them, complisults. Complisults can be twisted and retwisted to suit your nefarious purposes, but direct compliments you have to stand by.

Recently I referred to someone as a Hubbell, and to my distress they have no idea what I meant. Bad enough you make a compliment at all, but to have to explain it? Then it occurred to me that the ungrateful recipient might not have gay Streisand-loving friends to enlighten him. Not everyone is as lucky as I am (Sometimes days pass before I speak to another heterosexual. I should form a party list for marginalized heteros).

So for the record, this is a Hubbell. From the 1973 Sydney Pollack movie The Way We Were, Robert Redford as Hubbell.

The Hubbell is not to be confused with The Clooney

who thrives on irony,

or The Baldwin. In the Jane Austen-Amy Heckerling classic Clueless, a Baldwin meant this.

Since then, the Baldwin has evolved into this:

Portly, angry, but hilarious and therefore still hot.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

Did you know that the Philippine rugby team won the silver medal at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games? Yes, we have a national rugby team, and if all goes well they’re going to compete in the Hong Kong Sevens next year. And the Olympics in 2016. The Philippine Rugby Football Union site is here.

Meanwhile we should probably get more Filipinos interested in the sport, so every week we’re going to post a rugby video. Here’s one selected by Jaime, featuring very large guys and bone-crunching agony. Enjoy.

Haha! A ring to match my megalomania!

The winners of LitWit Challenge 2.8 are Boranzohn and Stellalehua. I like their facility with their chosen languages—they don’t turn themselves inside out to impress us with the verbiage—and the use of detail rather than adjectives to evoke a specific moment.

Congratulations, the My Pilipinas Moleskines are yours!

Winners, please post your full names in Comments. I’ll deliver your prizes to National Bookstore at Power Plant Mall in Rockwell and alert you when you can pick them up.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by the lovely people of National Bookstore. LitWit Challenge 2.9 is coming right up.

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Boranzohn and Stellalehua, you can pick up your Moleskines any day starting Wednesday, 28 April, during store hours at National Bookstore, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati City. Go to the Customer Service counter. Dean from the previous LitWit Challenge, your books are there, too.

Why we love Conan, from Letters of Note.