Happy New Year!

My friend Ted is preparing his polka dotted polo shirt for the New Year. He said he didn’t want to wear it but he has to.

* * *

Ted says his wife insists he must wear it when they hear Mass on New Year’s Day. “I tried to say no but she said ‘wear it or else’. I feared she might compel me to wear the matching slacks with more polka dots.” Hehe.

* * *

Another friend, Nanding, says no to polka dots. Every New Year’s Day he wears a polo shirt printed with cubes — like the dice but with no dots. Nanding, who used to work with the foreign service, says in South America lots of people wear shirts with cubic designs, not polka dots on New Year’s Day.

* * *

Someone sent me this worrisome information. The Reading Foundation of Germany is worried. Some two million Germans have lost the ability and the will to read because of television and radio, TV especially. Many Germans now seldom, if ever, read the newspapers, depending mainly on TV for news and entertainment.

* * *

The Reading Foundation and some influential newspapers like The Franfurter Allgemaine Zeitung, bothered by this kind of “modern literacy” among Germans, young and old, are frantically doing something to correct the situation.

* * *

My friend Daido Angel (he’s a nephew of Hon. F. Ramos after whom a street in the city is named) is all praise for the newly beautified Oriente Theater. “Nindota na sa Oriente ... saludo ko ni Bobit Avila.”

* * *

But Daido says there’s room for improvement in Oriente’s security. “Tiaw mo ba,” he said, “nga hastang gadget para mag-flush sa toilet gikawat.”

* * *

Reynaldo Chang, a partner of a business concern on Colon St., said he saw many areas in the city being flooded knee-deep during a heavy rain last week. “Wa’y nakakita pero nagkurog ko sa sud nako... Could this be a preview of a bigger flood?” he asked himself.

* * *

Mr. Chang said he saw people riding on boats sailing on a street intended for motor vehicles and the sight gave him the creeps. “Dili lang ta mahitabo dinhi ang nahitabo sa Cagayan de Oro ug Iligan,” he said. Both his parents, he said, are bed ridden.