2010-08-25
Witful Thinking, Wednesday
Winston “Arf-Arf” Arpon
PMA ‘64
tiger And erin,
sasha And maria
And
felix
She is the newest addition to our readership, perhaps the youngest (no, Bj, we didn’t ask for her age, like the gentlemen that we are or supposed to be). She is Hazel Gendrano-De Mesa.Upon our prodding – no, please change that to friendly persuasion – that she consider reading past issues of WTW, all 66 of them, in our blog (blog.djlf.org), she didn’t read all but did the next best thing, browse “most of it” and told us that it’s “a fun read indeed.”She must have read or browsed our tardiness because she said it’s “ok…..I know you work for DMV.”We like her already.There are hazels, the plant or the shrub, that give joy with their yellow flowers winter to spring. Then there’s Hazel. We will take this Hazel anytime – winter, spring, summer or fall.
ooOoo
The Ground Zero Mosque continues to draw opposition. It does not help that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the moving force behind the controversial project, is known to have been critical of the US, saying after September 11, 2001: "The United States and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end."
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"Building this structure on the edge of the battlefield created by radical Islamists,” outspoken oppositionist Newt Gingrich says, “is not a celebration of religious pluralism and mutual tolerance; it is a political statement of shocking arrogance and hypocrisy."We are inclined to agree.
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POTP Aquino III has appointed Chito Cruz, as general manager of the National Housing Authority. Cruz who graduated with a degree in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 was a classmate of Aquino, like other previous appointees that include Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.[1]. Kamag-anak, Inc. out, Barkada, Ltd. in? [2].
ooOoo
Every now and then, the bill to legalize divorce in the Philippines surfaces but so far as gotten nowhere. POTP Aquino has made it clear that as far as his “own personal opinion” is concerned, divorce is a ‘no-no.’ ‘Yes-yes,’ First Girlfriend Shalani Soledad must be saying in approval of her beau’s stand, hoping of course that he does not change his mind if or when he finally decides to end his 50-year bachelorhood.
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The other day, Tiger Woods and wife Elin Nordegren called it quits, as husband and wife. We have seen Tiger on countless occasions perform miracles on the golf course – doing one save after another, wherever he found himself on or off the fairway. So, we can hardly fault ourselves for expecting at the start that our idol would save the one that we think mattered the most – his marriage. We know now that he was in a deep rough, buried in the sand – an impossible lie – which no one, not even the great Tiger Woods, could get out of.
ooOoo
Cheating, Tiger must be realizing now, has no place in marriage, just like cheating in golf.
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For this one round of his life, the scorecard will show a “WD” or “DNF” after the name of Tiger Woods, for “Withdrew” or “Did Not Finish,” the first time ever for the golfer who, with a bad leg, did not withdraw and finished the 2009 US Open which he eventually won.
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With his open admission to his wife Erin, his family and the general public of his extra-marital affairs, infidelity as the main reason for the divorce was a no-brainer in the divorce hearings.For Erin, in particular, there will be 100 to 500 million more reasons – depending on the final financial settlement, reportedly from $100 to $500 million.
ooOoo
Whether or not the acronym for golf is “Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden,” dating back to the days when ladies could not play the ancient game, remains a subject of debate to this day.For the record, we have no problem with its variation, courtesy of lady golfer and WTW reader Boots Doria, Gentlemen Only Ladies Forgiven, now that golf is for gentlemen only no longer. Whatever the case, we think that Tiger who knows his golf history more than we do could have avoided his troubles if he just went through the trouble of posting the sign – Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden – on the door of the hotel rooms where he stayed when he was on the tour, out-of-town and away from his wife Erin. Or, a similar sign that we think would have meant a declaration of his own intent and sending a strong message to ladies on Tiger’s prowl: Gentlemen Only Ladies Forgotten.
ooOoo
In nearby Bradenton, Florida south of Panama City where the Woods-Nordegreen divorce was being finalized, two sweethearts, Maria Sharapova and Sasha Vujacic, were working out neither a divorce nor a settlement. The tennis megastar and the Los Angeles Lakers star were just working out, period; she, for the US Open tennis tournament; he, for the 2010-2011 NBA season.Without Tiger and Erin together in Florida, we won’t mind keeping our eye on Sasha and Maria, hoping that they will give us something to wtwrite about; we mean, write about.
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And Felix? Yes, in last week’s WTW, we wrote about him, Cavalier Feliciano “Felix” Angue ’78, the Philippine Navy rear admiral who, through a press conference, aired his complaints about the promotion system, and his “demotion” in particular after he was relieved as Commander of the National Capital Region Office, a position that could have earned him a promotion to vice-admiral.We saw great merit in making our follow-up commentary on ‘Angue’s Angle’ the center-“piece” subject this week and had our draft ready but decided at the last moment to put it off for next week. Tiger and Erin and Sasha and Maria were subjects too compelling and engaging to ignore this week.
ooOoo
In her book, Shadow of Doubt/Proving the Supreme Court [3], author Marites Danguilan Vitug cited Chief Justice John Roberts, in a rare interview to The Atlantic, saying this about justice in the US Supreme Court: “What we’re trying to establish…..is that it’s not the person; it’s the law.” In our home court, it’s somewhat different. This has been established: it’s the person; she is the law. But like the Supreme Court, ours has no higher court for appeal.
ooOoo
“Spartan from Loakan” – neither Sparta nor Loakan is Greek to us. “Reincarnated Athenian(s) – known for their wit and elegant turns of thought” isn’t Greek to us either, a very generous and flattering thought – and certainly undeserved. Thank you, just the same, Cavalier Samuel “Sam” Marcelo x87.
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“Another great read, made more special by your fond reference to Mam Pilar.” Yes, Cavalier Bob Aviso ’73 and your OAO [4,] Mylene, the late Pilar was special, thank you both. She was such a fine lady – a great Wife, Mom and Lola as her headstone says – and she won't be forgotten. Not ever, as far as we are concerned.
ooOoo
Vincent Co’rdova [5], no relation or link, to the best of our knowledge, to the Cordoba Initiative behind the building of a Muslim mosque at Ground Zero, chanced upon our past issue on the Kissing Rock, actually two consecutive issues – 2010-02-25 WTW/”But Where is the Kissing Rock;” 2010-03-04 WTW/”Kissing Rock – Lost and Found? – and posted on our BLOG (www.djlf.org) to let us know that his father, Frederick B. Cordova, Jr. “also met with my mother Joan McGuiness Cordova at the Kissing Rock.” His father was a member of the Class of 1946, Company C. The Philippine Military Academy does not have a Class 1946 – Class 1945 was the last pre-WWII PMA – but the US Military Academy at West Point does. Vincent’s Old Man graduated from West Point.
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Since that posting, Vincent has shared some information about this family and some photographs. That meeting at the Kissing Rock ended in a marriage where “my mother gave birth to 12 children,” he revealed, and, all have grown up to be doctors, attorneys, engineers, contractors, business people, a ball room dance instructor, astro physicist – and an apple farmer. Vincent is the farmer. Vincent’s Old Man passed away on February 5, 2010, but “mother is hanging in there better than me,” Vincent wrote us. To Vincent and his family, we extend our belated condolence [6] and our thanks for sharing his story and the photographs of his family, bringing us back in time to our own Kissing Rocks.
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Last week, we wrote that Lorenzo Hall at PMA, Fort del Pilar, Baguio City, the reception area where cadets met their visitors no longer exists to this day. We forgot to mention that it has been replaced by the Lopez Hall of Heroes.We are unsure about Lopez’s identity, but Cavalier Jose “Joe” ‘54/55 [7] knows who Lorenzo was - 2LT Isabelo V. Lorenzo, one of the of the first members of Class of 1953, Dado’s seniors, killed in action during the Huk Campaign. "The paths of glory lead but to the grave," Dado quotes Thomas Gray’s Elegy.
ooOoo
Boy! It was hot last night.But don’t go there, Bj. We said “it,” not ‘she.’
ooOoo
Home is where the hearth is.
If true, this makes things even worse for us. She doesn't cook and neither do I. So, the homeless me has to go back to what we wrote last week [8], back to the old saw: home is where the heart is. And then, hope that it does not get to be, home is where the hurt is.
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Aquino Administration Watch [9]. We continue what we began several WTW issues ago – our countdown of how long the present administration has been in office, using “How Many Days Oh Noble Cataline?” a plebe knowledge [10]. Sir, 56 days, 1,344 hours, 80,640 minutes, 4,838,400 seconds and 9,676,800 ticks have passed since Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III assumed office as President of the Philippines. Yes, boys and girls, as you know we began this countdown a month ago [11]; 21 days, 504 hours, 30,240 minutes, 1,814,400 seconds and 3,628,800 ticks after Aquino was sworn in as Philippine president.
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“But counting days and weeks seems too long. So we decided to count the months,” Viel has been quoted as saying. [12] Viel is Victoria Eliza Aquino Dee, one of the First Sisters. KAY (Kris Aquino Yap, we think, is still appropriate, until her petition for annulment of her marriage to James Jap is granted by the court) may be your favorite and ours, but no, Bj, she is not the only First Sister. We hold no delusion that the comment of Viel, we mean, Ms. Dee or Ma’am Dee, was meant for us. She doesn’t read us and even if she did, it’s a cinch she hasn’t heard about “How Many Days O Noble Cataline,” and would not understand the breakdown into days, let alone hours, minutes, seconds and ticks; unless, of course, Cavalier Rogelio “Roger/Tianong” Santiano ’84 told her about the ‘plebe knowledge.’ In his other life as a member of the Presidential Security Guards Santiano knew the Viel, [13].
OOOOO
dateline: foster city, california
@arf-arf ‘64
wtw 2010-15
volume 067
http://blog.djlf.org/
Notes:
[1] Other classmates of Aquino were appointed earlier to head the Metro Manila Development Authority, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and the Land Registration Authority.
[2] Kamag-anak is a Filipino word that means family or relatives; Kamag-anak Inc. is a carryover from the presidency of Corazon Aquino, referring to a group that, according to her critics, exercised enormous influence in Aquino’s administration. Barkada, also a Filipino word, means a group or gang of friends, usually in their youthThis isn’t a commentary from wit-hin, but from wit-hout – and our thanks to Cavalier Victor “VicE/Marami Vice” Erfe ’69, a WTW C5 ((Cavalier correspondent, contributor, conspirator/conniver and critic) who contributed this.
[3] Public Trust Media Corporation, 2010
[4] PMA cadets use this acronym for their loved one, girlfriend or wife, to mean One and Only
[5] Please note, he reminded us, the apostrophe in Co’rdova; Spanish, not Mexican. 16 generations of Co’rdovas
[6] Vincent actually posted on our BLOG hours after his father’s death and we regret that we did not read it then
[7] Dado tells us that the PMA Alumni registry is correct in listing him under Class ’55 but we will continue to indicate both of this classes, at PMA and West Point, until the PMA Alumni Association comes up with a ruling on this issue
[8] 2010-08-18 WTW/”Homeless in Washington”
[9] A segment of WTW is dedicated to a commentary on events and issues involving the administration of Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III who took office on June 30, 2010 which coincidentally was a Wednesday, the same day that we post Witful Thinking, Wednesday.
[10] A ‘plebe knowledge’ is a collective body of composition, poems, rhymes, verses, definitions, etc. that plebes in military academies, like the Philippine Military Academy, are required to know and recite verbatim, a requirement that is aimed at sharpening their memory skills while adding to their knowledge (a good number of plebe knowledge, like “What is a Kiss?” or “How is the Cow?” are funny and frivolous, but some, like The Origin of Coal, contain factual information that are good to know and remember). In this plebe knowledge, How Many Days, Oh Noble Cataline, we are doing what the plebes would have done in a countdown of the number of days POTP Aquino has been in office – compute the days and convert them to hours, minutes, seconds and ticks, a laborious computation by long hand, before the slide rule, calculators, computers and spreadsheets.
[11] 2010-07-21 WTW/”Honeymoon and Postulates for a Presidency
[12] The gist of the report: Viel said they had already started “our countdown to 2016” as a way of reminding themselves that the criticisms would end when their only brother, who is a bachelor, steps down on June 30, 2016. “We thought this is just six years, so how many days? How many weeks? But counting days and weeks seems too long. So we decided to count the months … 70 months to go. Sounds better,” Viel said.[13] Now an LPN, Licensed Practical Nurse (his own translation: Lowly Paid Nurse), the young Santiano served with PSG in 1986 to 1993, in the administration PCCA, President Corazon C. Aquino and PFVR, President Fidel V. Ramos.
2010-08-25
Witful Thinking, Wednesday