SAT Progress Report

WE SPENT $3.6K of hard-earned bucks on SAT Summer Camp at Kweller Prep to help Sara prepare for college applications, and the investment is paying off very well. Her last practice test score is 90 points short of the 2018 perfect score of 1600, and she is determined to hit the mark when she takes her first actual test this fall, after a short trip with her cousins and Mom to Mindoro and Taiwan. Can't go; all summer vacations had been snapped up by coworkers with higher seniority.

Mount Defiance, 1891

THE FEARLESS MANGYAN DAUGHTER who was up front about how repulsed she was by the idea and dared to defy the malagti-skinned men's order to bare herself before the camera. And a not-so-lucky bull tamaraw that came a-charging in rage. Of the original Filipino soul. Photos from the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Michigan Library.

Dr. Frank Bourns, Pinoy tracker Fulgencio Aceveda and Dean Worcester in Mindoro, 1891

Smart Cards

A SMART THING TO DO if you are in the nation's capital is to stop by the Library of Congress and apply for a free Reader Identification Card which takes five minutes to process but must be renewed in person every two years. Even if you do not intend to do your research in the library, the card will also allow you to access and download material from the vast digital resources of HathiTrust from your home computer if you do not belong to any of its other partner institutions.

And the New York Public Library (together with Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Library) now gives its cardholders free admission (for two or four people!) to more than thirty museums and cultural institutions throughout the city with its Culture Pass program. (The Museum of Natural History is not there yet, but the list is still growing.) How's that as a perk from a library card?

Dollars And Sense

I HAVE BEEN WITH American Express for more than thirty years, reflecting a long-held practice of not overspending and paying off the card at the end of each statement period to avoid being charged a whopping 19.99% interest on any unpaid balance--a good caution not to live beyond my means--while earning hotel points at the same time. I also keep with the company a High Yield Personal Savings Account with a competitive 1.75% Annual Percentage Yield, way beyond what is offered by brick-and-mortar financial institutions like Chase and Bank of America at 0.01-0.03%!

A New Book

SDSU FRIEND Marilyn Chin has a forthcoming book whose title poem came from Strange Attraction: The Best of Ten Years of ZYZZYVA where a piece of yours truly she recommended to the magazine also appeared. More power to you and ZYZZYVA!