Accidents do happen — at home! - FUNFARE by Ricky Lo

And you thought that your home is the safest place to be. Well, think again.

Akyat-bahay could break into your home (like they did in ours last March) in the dead of night and, if you’re "lucky," cart away only valuables and, because you’re all in deep (sweet) slumber, thank heavens, not your life. Your roof, eaten away by termites, could cave in for all you know, right when you’re watching the final episode of Rosalinda. Or, if you’re down on your luck, a fire could break out, sparked by a misplaced candle during a brownout on a stormy night.

Or you could meet an accident when you least expect it (as if accidents are to be expected, kaya nga accident, e!).

It did happen to me last Tuesday, a freak accident right inside our home (sweet home). I was rushing out of the house when my cellphone rang (I’m still wondering who that caller could be). I was walking toward the sliding glass door, not looking (because I was retrieving that – unfortunate – call), and – kabloom, blog! crash, bang! – I hit the glass door with my left knee, shattering the door to pieces. The next thing I knew, I was slumped on the pavement, looking in horror at a four-inch gaping wound, blood oozing as if from a busted MWSS pipe.

Since it was impossible for me to drive without risking expiring along the way from loss of blood (yes, it was that bad), I summoned my niece Ivy from the nearby bank where she’s working and asked her to take me on a cab to the nearest hospital, the Fairview General Hospital.

Three hours later, I was under the knife, numb from partial skeletal anesthesia, with Dr. Jose Redentor Bucu (the orthopedic surgeon) casually sewing me up (more than two dozen stitches, would you believe!) and later showing me the glass splinter (resting inside a cute bottle) extracted from my wounded knee. (Thanks, too, to Dr. Florante Muñoz, Internist, and Dr. Marichu Battad, anesthesiologist.)

Grounded at home, with my left knee bundled up in cement-plaster cast, I’m mulling over (when not reading a book or watching TV endlessly) what could happen to you in what you thought is the safest place to be – your home where, according to statistics, some of the worst accidents could occur, such as:

• You bumping your head inside a slippery bathroom (check out bits of soap on the floor) and losing your consciousness),

• You tumbling down the stairs as you rush to answer an urgent phone call,

• You falling from bed during a bad dream, or

• You walking straight into a sliding glass door while mindlessly trying to answer a cellphone call.

As Inday Badiday would say, "Careful, careful!"

Tomorrow, the doctor will teach me how to walk again – on elbow crutch.

Tribute to Gerry P.

And now, for more cheerful news.

Wednesday night last week was probably the first time a full concert and tribute was devoted to the music of composer Gerry Paraiso who – middle of this year –was diagnosed as having cancer of the liver.

He was the same composer who bagged the Cecile Awards in different categories for his song, You, sung by Basil Valdez in the early ’80s. That song became Record of the Year, Song of the Year and adjudged Best Ballad Composition.

As composer and arranger, it was Gerry Paraiso who penned the songs of Jaya (Tanging Ikaw Lamang), Manilyn Reynes (Sayang Na Sayang), Rachel Alejandro (Mr. Cupido), Joey Albert (Over and Over) and the hit song of the late Ric Segreto (Loving You).

As Gerry was fighting for his life, his wife Evelyn Romualdez, Richard Merk and Wyngard Tracy thought it would be nice to see Gerry’s friends in one big reunion where the composer’s music would be relived and the good old times recalled.

And they came in full force: The Circus bandmates, classmates from Ateneo de Manila and glittering names from Manila’s pop music scene namely Kuh Ledesma, Regine Velasquez, Martin Nievera, Basil Valdez, Richard Merk, Ogie Alcasid, Mon David, Jong Cuenco, Tots Tolentino, Bituin Escalante, Richard Tann and many others.

Did you know that Gerry came from a high school batch of Ateneo de Manila that included businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco, entrepreneur Boysie Villavicencio, singer Basil Valdez, theater designer Salvador Bernal, stage and film director Anton Juan, theater director Nonon Padilla and BPI Family Bank president Aurelio Montinola III, among others?

Also seen in the tribute were Irene Marcos Araneta who happens to be the first cousin of Gerry’s wife, Evelyn Romualdez.

This concert also relayed deep spiritual messages as emcee Noel Trinidad read verses from the Bible in between musical numbers.

Touched by the outpouring of love for the composer, Noel said, "Gerry’s music embraces us like God’s wings of love."

The concert ended with Gerry’s daughter Pamela singing Loving You with Richard Merk and with Basil Valdez singing Gerry’s signature song, You, along with his latest single Alaala.

Nothing could have been more moving and touching as this.

Lesson in grammar

Here’s another little lesson in grammar/vocabulary from Funfare-friendly Ramon Alfonso Fuentes, "a concerned citizen:"

In your set-to with Diether Ocampo (STAR, 16 November 2000), you quoted him as saying: "I’d be a Sikuya Tree. It’s huge, can grow up to a hundred feet high. It’s sturdy. I am high, remember, so I want to feel high, like a Sikuya Tree." (Underscoring mine.)

Undoubtedly, Diether meant sequoia tree (no need to capitalize), "either of two huge coniferous California trees of the pine family that reach a height of over 300 feet." He might appreciate the rectification.

On the other hand, you may wish to call the attention of the scriptwriter of ABS-CBN’s Flames and Charo Santos-Concio, including Bernadette Allyson, that if the pleonasm"year anniversary" is a grammatical monstrosity, "month anniversary" is even worse.

In a sequence in the Nov. 15 episode of the aforementioned program, Bernadette Allyson said: Eh, kasi one month anniversary namin ngayon." The rest of the other characters in that sequence kept repeating the malalocution. This grotesquery is very rampant now on TV and with movie personalities.

In the spirit of helpfulness, perhaps it would not be amiss to suggest that, to express the sense of an event occurring after one month or several months subsequently, the proper term is "LUNAVERSARY."

The etymology of the term "LUNAVERSARY":

1. The word "month" is based on the Anglo-Saxon term "monath." It is often shortened to "mona";

2. The LATIN equivalent of "mona" is "LUNA";

3. The LATIN word for a recurring event is "VERSUS" (the past participle of VERTERE) from which "VERSARY" is derived; and

4. If you combined LUNA and VERSARY, you have "LUNAVERSARY", an event that recurs from month-to-month.

As always in our cooperative effort, it’s your call.

Thank you for the privilege of interacting with you.

MABUHAY ang FILIPINO – LAHING DAKILA!