Out-of-office reply, 11 Dec 2020-4 Jan 2021

Email is unread
An inbox is untended
Swept on holiday
 
“Out-of-the-office,” the automaton writes back.
No sooner than January 4th will I unpack.
 
Letters will be read, but when? Not known.
Emails replied to when opportunity is shown.
   And if something needs my urgent look,
   Very dire matters about something mistook,
Email won’t do. Try my phone. 

Letse!

I always thought that letse -- as in the "letse ka!" vulgarity we love to use in the Philippines -- is derived from Spanish. After all, letse... leche... 333 years of Spanish occupation... just made sense. But then I heard of the Bahasa Melayu word leceh which is used exactly the way we use letse, and it got me rethinking my hypothesis. I am now inclined to think we got it from our Malayo-Austronesian roots rather than Spanish. Let me explain. 

Leche as a cuss word, I understand, is practically unheard of in modern Spain or Latin America. It's milk, and you're more likely to hear it in the context of desserts rather than their digested byproduct. Closest uses of leche as an expression I could find are me cago en la leche and con mala leche, which are used more like exasperations or idiomatic expressions.

The Malay leceh, on the other hand, is an accusative or insult directed at a person or situation. Meaning troublesome or annoying, leceh requires an object and is used in almost the exact same context we use letse. 

This will need more research and confirmation, but I am now inclined to think that letse is a pre-Hispanic cuss word. It may be more related to leceh than leche. Amazing how inverting two letters can change the entire history of this cuss word. 

I'm calling it: 4 more years

It's going to be four more years. He has a solid 30-40% base that won't budge and would almost surely vote. The other side has a solid 30-40% too (including anti-status quo independents), but they're concentrated in cities and already-blue states so in Electoral College terms they're a minority. Base-versus-base will surely go his way. The wavering independents and moderate conservatives need to be converted and vote against their party, but I don't see that happening at all. So it's 4 more years.

Prove me wrong in November.

ABS-CBN

I've always disliked ABS-CBN. It's a power peddler, using its privileged position as a broadcaster to lobby for the business interests of its controlling family. It has launched the political careers of several politicians, some more qualified than others, and relished in its ability to do so. More ethical broadcasters would reel at the suggestion of directly involving themselves with the first three estates.

But we need to put all that aside for now. What we have here is a state bent on controlling the media, trying to ensure that only its crafted narrative is heard. This is an existential threat to our democracy. We cannot let this happen. Congress should get off its ass, stop using the pandemic as an excuse, and immediately renew the broadcasting franchise. And I can go back to dissing ABS-CBN again.

An Act

An Act
By V.C. Sotto III and P.S. Cayetano

Strangely empty streets.
From one empty shelf to another
in supermarkets.
Closed shops.
Factory closures.
Curfews being implemented.
Military and medical personnel are manning checkpoints.
Class suspensions.

People are staying at home.
People are working from home.
Socializing is restricted.
Uncertainty and fear among people

dominate.