Frankenstein
n.— «There’s an ironic local expression that sums it up: Frankenstein. It describes an old object or concept injected with new life through fresh components—”antique” chairs bolstered by new arms and legs, jeepneys revamped with transplanted motors and fresh paint jobs (a new MTV program, Pimp My Jeepney, is in the works), to ukay-ukay, or rummage-sale, vintage clothes stitched together with modern materials and prints. To me, Frankenstein explains the city’s visual style as well as its strength and resilience. Improvisation and cheerfully making do characterize the Filipino attitude toward poverty.» —“The Bold and the Beautiful” by Lara Day in Manila, Philippines Time Apr. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...