Sweet nothings

YOU’RE old if you’ve seen all the Wonka movies: the 1971 “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” that had Gene Wilder, the 2005 “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with Johnny Depp, and the 2023 “Wonka” which starred Timothee Chalamet.

A family’s three and even four generations could have watched “Wonka” as an intro to their holiday-season chocolate indulgence.

And that one word—chocolate—was the top secret lurking behind the flu, coughs, and colds in December. Don’t blame that on the rain or the air or the virus. Blame the carbs—spaghetti, lasagna, macaroni salad, potato salad, fruit salad, fruitcake, chocolate cake, cupcakes, cookies, leche flan, sans rival, ube halaya, grapes, apples, oranges, the New Year’s Eve 12 or 13 fruits, chocolates, etc.—for weakening the body’s immune system. Should these include sweet nothings? Hmmm.

And I wasn’t spared as several servings of macaroni salad, potato salad, and fruit salad miraculously appeared on my plate. The low-carb diet went down the drain, no thanks to the justification that a Christmas party happens only once in a blue moon. But the revenge partying began to look a lot like it was almost daily, giving the body no time to fast and to recover. Yes, I should have chosen the sweet nothings instead. As Kenny Rankin sang once upon a time, “I have regrets, regrets.”

And I should have feasted on Tiny Baboy at Fairways Grill and Restaurant at the Pueblo de Oro Golf and Country Club. Yum! Tiny baboy/In the wine/Make me happy/Make me feel fine. Now you know why tiny baboy sounds familiar.

Talk of wine—that is, if tequila is a kind of wine—there was this “Two Facts and a Lie” icebreaker activity at Rappler’s FactsFirstPH Roadshow CDO workshop held at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in November 2023. Hmmm. That seems so long ago already.

Anyway, the icebreaker went this way: Look for a partner, tell him/her two facts and a lie about you, and let him/her guess what the lie is. These were mine: I love tequila, I’m a pianist, and I’ve been to Switzerland. And my partner’s guess as my lie was: I love tequila. Oops! Wrong. But I was pleasantly surprised that she thought I’ve been to Switzerland.

As for her: she loves coffee, she’s a foodie, she’s a student. I know bawal ang judgmental, but based on her, uh, body weight, this was so easy—she’s a student. Unless she’s taking her masteral or doctoral degree.

The icebreaker could have morphed into “Never Have I Ever” had it kept going and going. Which could have made the workshop more interesting. But there were serious matters to discuss, so, back to work we went.

This game can be difficult for a politician whose two facts and a lie can be these: He wants to serve the madlang pehpohl, he will stay with his political party forevermore, he’s not running for reelection in 2025 and 2028.

There’s this saying that goes, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” That could sum up Rappler’s FactsFirstPH campaign. While sharing those three choices for the icebreaker, the participant’s body language would always reveal the lie since he tended to pause before saying it.