Mendoza: I don’t troll, I just sing a la John Lennon

Friday, January 20, 2012

BELOW is the unedited e-mail to me of reader Marino G. Santos:

“Your column today (01/14/12) surely qualifies you to be a novice for fighthype. But you troll too much, I guess not[?]. The convicted Floyd has a jail term to face, that’s why he’s rushing. That’s his problem. The best is him to face his demons first, before going back to boxing. And since you believe him wanting to fight Pacman, that makes you a sucker.”

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Is this e-mail really meant for me?

Granting but not believing that Mr. Santos had e-mailed me the above--for the sake of argument--I submit he committed a mistake.

I believe he read a column that wasn’t mine.

I do not troll that much to begin with. The last time I trolled was in 2001, in San
Vicente, Sta. Ana, Cagayan.

Or did Mr.Santos mean by troll “sing?”

Basically, troll has two meanings:

Troll means to sing or utter in a full, rolling voice.

Troll also means to fish by trolling.

I sing a la John Lennon (ahem!), in a nasal manner (ahem again!).

When I trolled in Cagayan in 2001 in the company of VicVic Villavicencio, I caught 19 dorados. Not bad for a novice. I shared my catch with my neighbors in the village where I live and the village talk for a week centered on the many ways of cooking the dorado: steamed, deep fried, sinigang, grilled, paksiw, escabeche.

I deny being a novice for “fighthype” (fight hype). I’ve been mostly taking fight hypes for breakfast since I became a boxing judge in 1978.

People read others and next identify me as the columnist they had read.

But it happens. I was once introduced as “Mr. Joaquin Henson, the great and glorious sports columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.”

What gave Mr. Santos away to prove that that e-mail he sent me was not really meant for me?

The last sentence of his e-mail: “And since you believe him [Mayweather] wanting to fight Pacman, that makes you a sucker.”

If I said that Mayweather wanted to fight Pacman, it qualifies me as a sucker?
I don’t get it.

Of course, Mayweather is dying to face Pacquiao. He’ll earn $50 million for starters. What sucks there?

I rest my case.

(alsol47@yahoo.com)