ON UNDERDOGS & ANIMAL SPEAK

It was a Saturday that Yuri, Boris, Greta, Marx (my four canine companions)and I waited – and the waiting seemed to take forever – for the Star Circle Quest judging of the best questor in the teens’ and kids’ categories.

I had been sending in text votes for my favorite candidate Sandara Park for several weeks.

"Why Sandara?" Yuri barked to me as we sat in front of the TV.

"She’s the underdog," came my quick reply.

"Underdog? Does that mean that she is one of us?" Yuri further queried.

"Not really," I said.

We had been watching Star Circle Quest for over two months now. We watched as one contestant was removed week after week until it came down to the last five. Sandara Park was definitely not a favorite of the three judges (actress Gloria Diaz, director Lauren Dyogi and TV host Boy Abunda). That was obvious from their comments after each of Sandra’s performance. To be fair, at times I agreed with them but there were times when it seemed that they were simply biased against her.

"Sandara you are the weakest" was what TV viewers came to expect the judges to say at the end of each show even before the judges actually said it.

It was only when Sandara acted out a scene where she was killed that she got the judges’ nod. "You must have been more confident in this scene because you had no dialogue," said director Lauren sarcastically.

And yes, the other questors did have more talent than Sandara – but what we saw in Sandara was a person who was willing to stay in the fight, no matter what. Even if she often said that she wanted to quit, she did not.

So, because it is very Filipino to root for the underdog, I started my campaign to get as many friends as I could to cast a few votes a day for Sandara.

Blame it on the way the soap operas on Channel 2 are scheduled. After Star Circle Quest, there is Basta’t Kasama Kita, Sana’y Wala ng Wakas, and It Might be You, all of which have the heroes or heroines becoming the underdog at some point in the script but eventually becoming triumphant at the end.

This is what we wanted Sandara to show us, that she could redeem herself – and in real life at that.

Because I made it a point to root for the underdog, text, text, text and text I did. After all, ABS-CBN promised its viewers that they could help choose the Star questor with their text votes. Thankfully, ABS-CBN kept its promise.

There must have been a whole lot of like-minded TV viewers as myself who believed in the power of texting, because Sandara was the texters’ choice for five weeks, losing out only once to Hero Angeles. Matter of fact, there was a week where Sandara got over 500,000 text votes. "The most number of text votes for a single person all over the Philippines," said Star Quest host Luis Manzano.

Each time I texted a vote, I thought about how the canvassing of votes for president and vice president of this country (which has not reached any conclusion yet) could be as easy to tally. This way, there would be more people who would go out and vote because they would be assured that their votes would be counted.

‘Nuff said.

Yuri seemed to have understood what it meant to be the underdog and why there were so many people that came out that Saturday for Sandara.

As we sat on pins and needles, Marx, my Scottie, asked me to tell them more about animalspeak – or expressions that people use. I sat and thought for a while and then I rattled off a few idioms that I knew.

Let me share them with you: Dog day is a period of inactivity usually during the summer months. And then there is dog eat dog world, a world where people fight for themselves without thinking about what happens to anyone else. Doggone it is a 19th century euphemism for goddamn. It expresses disappointment. Let sleeping dogs lie refers to not to making trouble if that is possible. In the doghouse means to be in disgrace or disfavor. What about cat nap? It means to take a short nap. Or for the birds – useless, unreliable facts that are unacceptable or trivial and are implied to be for the weaker or unintelligent people.

And then the stock markets are called either bull market, which refers to an upward price trend, or bear market, which refers to the downward price trend. Cat’s paw refers to a person used by a person for an unpleasant or distasteful task. Let the cat out of the bag is used to describe that person who gives secrets away. Then, the cock and bull story which means to give a false account or tell a tale. Smokers always hear this one – cold turkey or abruptly ending a dependency like smoking. Flogging a dead horse – a salesman would be best at this because this refers to selling something that has no real value. A jailbird is a prisoner. A guinea pig is not just the animal; it also means a person or animal that is subject to testing in an experiment. Holy mackerel is an expression of surprise. Lion’s share is what everyone wants, that is getting the biggest share of the pie. Pigs might fly means that something is highly unlikely. Cash cow? A good way to make money. Cat got one’s tongue refers to the inability to speak because of being too shy.

Change horses in midstream means to choose a new leader in the middle of an important activity. Dumb bunny is a stupid or gullible person (oh, poor rabbits). Smell a rat means to be suspicious or feel that something is wrong. Take the bull by the horns means to take decisive action and not to worry about the results. Ferret out the truth means to search persistently and discover the facts or truth. Bull in a china shop is a person with no tact who upsets others or disrupts plans. Put the cart before the horse means that a person does things in the wrong order. Straight from the horse’s mouth is directly from the person or place where something began. Snug as a bug in a rug is to feel very safe and comfortable.

By the time I had recited my litany of animalspeak, the winners of the Star Quest were about to be announced – and the dogs had tuned me out and tuned their attention to the TV.

Hero got top prize.

But that didn’t matter – Sandara placed second.

"Being underdog is a good thing," Yuri yapped to me.

"Well, if Sandara did not place I would have smelled a rat, felt that the whole Star Circle Quest was for the birds. It’s good that we heard the decision straight from the horse’s mouth and because we are no dumb bunnies – we’re glad that Sandara did not end up in the dog house," I said to him.