The joys of babying a book

HURSDAY the 14th was a very raindrenched day as I set off from my Antipolo abode even before dawn. I had accepted an invitation to guest in Ado Pa-

Revolution,” aired over Radyo Pilipinas from 5 to 7 in the morning, purposely in order to be able to announce in the widely followed radio program the birth of my baby:

The simile is quite apt. The joy that had seized me as early as the night before was not unlike that feeling I had while pacing the corridor of a Cainta hospital back and forth, anticipating

on July 9, 1979. I had married late, and I was entering 40 when Maoie was born. Imagine how blissful it is for a man to be having a son after a long, long time. That’s just the bliss I got as I rushed in the rain to catch an early jeepney ride to Metro Manila that Thursday. After more than half a century of writing, there I was on the road to seeing my in the movie “Mandirigma.” Somebody quipped, “Coco Martin!” “Nahh,” I reacted, pouting, adding to myself, “Alex Balutan is a lot more masculine.”

I told the folks, again in the manner of “I, me, myself,” I have a history of successfully launching complete unknowns into successful movie stardom. I said I intended to go that way again

in “Mandirigma”: search for a guy who looks good and quite manly, not one for mere feeding into the lust of some

in exchange

for assurance in winning

festival’s competition proper.

And I wasn’t kidding when I declared that GM Balutan himself could do the