IT IS said that the famous playwright Oscar Wilde relegated the pun to being the lowest form of wit. So punning is a puny attempt to be punny, este, funny. To Wilde, a retort was that "The bun is the lowest form of wheat." Do your ears hurt yet?
Why is the punning the lowest form of wit, though? Here's an answer: Because it is only marginally better than being witless (attributed to Vikram Karekatte, North Sydney). Here's another answer: "If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand!" (attributed to Karlheinz Kunkel, Oatley). What a cough out.
But then again, we like puns, the play on words and how they sound and what they don't mean. But we leave them now to hearken to an earlier "connections" theme.
The dark horse in the last Baguio mayoralty race won it.
When the campaign began before the official campaign began, the word was everywhere that Vice Mayor Ed Bilog was a shoo-in (no, not shoe) for the mayoral spot. In the market, in the streets, in parties, in private conversations, there was just one name on almost all lips: Bilog. And how he was the sure bet, sure winner, sure mayor-to-be.
And then we started hearing other things and about the other contenders. For each, some good, some bad. Still, Bilog maintained a seeming lead. He is, after all, the incumbent vice mayor and had been #1 Councilor before that.
The tide seemed to change about two weeks before election day. I remember starting out one of those days determined to poll whoever I met wherever.
It started with asking our laundress. She had no preference for mayor because for her, "pada-pada da met amin." She said she would go with whomever we told her to vote for. Besides, she had more to say about how much votes were being paid for in one of the lowland provinces than who should be Baguio Mayor.
As the day grew on, and I was running errands here and there, I noticed not hearing "Bilog" as much as during the early days of the campaign. From one sector of the city (and beyond) in particular, the name on their lips was "Magalong." The dark horse.
I would like to think that his win, against many odds, is indicative of the city's deep-rooted desire for change, for not business as usual, for right over wrong even if. Though actually, my thought now is: if change was the issue that won it for Magalong, then why is it that there is only one new name in the list that made it to the city council?