Money, money, money

You can’t buy much with your P500 bill, says a frustrated housewife. “Bitaw,” agrees my secretary. “The housewife’s frustration is reflected on Ninoy Aquino’s sad face on the bill.”

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 Noy Temiong says most people today are crazy about money. Of course. Who won’t be crazy when your peso can’t even buy you a stick of fishball?

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 I heard someone say that millions of germs live on our old P20 bill. How lucky are these germs. Can you live on a P20 bill?

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 “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” says an old saying. It’s really true. And this explains why guys like me have hearts growing fonder for the absent moolah.

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 It says here that the Phl milk industry needs more Australian cows. Some people need milking cows, not necessarily Australian.

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 “Noy retains Binay’s P200-M ‘Pork’.” — headline. Maybe Noy wants Jojo to have good health, says a reader in his e-mail.

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 There is enough water amid the El Niño threat, says the National Irrigation Admin. Yes, of course. In some places in Luzon there is not only enough water, there is more than enough water.

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 Sen. Koko Pimentel continues his attack against former Sen. Migz Zubiri. I understand his feelings. “But that’s not doing our Mindanao any good,” says Dr. Ambrosio Baldemor, whose father was from Misamis Oriental and his mother comes from Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

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 “If only Koko and Migz could unite and work hand and hand for Mindanao, our island would be a land of promise fulfilled,” says Dr. Baldemor in his e-mail message.

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 It’s September again. This humble column was born on this month in 1972 shortly after the declaration of Martial Law. It started as a vegetable-and-fish column and later a baseball column. That makes this corner 40 years old.

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 The title of this column, which some elitist readers call corny, was given by my newsman friend Buddy Quintana, then the chairman of the Cebu Press Council, a powerful press body during Martial Law. It was so powerful it would even look into every advertising material before it goes to print.

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 I had thought of changing the title of this column but it has already caught fire, so to speak, so I decided to let it stay even if only in honor of the memory of my friend and colleague Buddy Q.

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OVERHEARD. A father with five kids, all boys, in high school was heard talking to someone during a CESAFI basketball game: “Gusto unta ko ma-basketball players ning akong mga anak basin pa lang makaduwa sa PBA, pero gi-discourage man ko sa akong amigo nga coach.” His friend asked: “Ngano man?” The father replied: “Mga turotoy kuno akong mga anak — 4 feet ra sila. Ang labing taas 4-foot-2.”