Historian’s Nook

A couple of years back, our local film industry bravely produced and exhibited the life and times of our very own local hero Lapu Lapu in a movie with the same title.  If my memory serves me right, this film even made it as one of the entries in the Metro Manila Film Festival.  Heroic as it was, the movie was a ho-hum among movie-goers and students alike.  With Lito Lapid and Joyce Jimenez at the helm, what more can one expect.  Everything I guess but superb acting.  I watched this movie at the nearest cinema to find out for myself what justice these producers had done to our local warrior.  Frankly speaking, most costumes used in the film were great.  That’s basically it.  And you know what?  After the movie, I came to realize that there were only three of us watching the film.  How pathetic can one get.  Anyway, just for the sake of being a historical film, I purchased a copy of this film just this year.  What the heck.  If only perhaps for posterity’s sake…

Now come to think of it, it’s high time that Hollywood producers put into the big screen the life and times of Fernando Magallanes (a.k.a. Ferdinand Magellan) while highlighting his journey en route to the beautiful paradise of the future Filipinas.  I think it would be very interesting how Hollywood filmmakers would portray early natives of this archipelago vis-à-vis the rampaging colonizers.  I think Hollywood has produced several movies on the voyage of Cristobal Colon (a.k.a. Christopher Columbus) to the New World.  Why not the expedition of the star-crossed conquistador Magallanes?  I’m sure the Filipino nation would surely await. 

Come on, let’s all hear the indio’s, tonto’s and puñeta’s in the film.

For those people who are interested to know the origin of several common used phrases and expressions, this one’s for you.  Written by Jonathan Norton, the book American Expressions: Fascinating Origins & Unusual Meanings of Popular American Phrases (California: Santa Monica Press, 1998) is an attempt to trace the often surprising histories of some favorite popular expressions, catch phrases, clichés, proverbs, etc.  To list a few:

1)   apple of one’s eye (the object of one’s affection): literally the name for the pupil, since before the advent of modern science it was thought that the pupil was solid part of the eye

2)   through thick and thin (through good and bad times): refers to early explorations and excursions through forests and dense brush

3)  red tape (bureaucratic barriers): referred to the traditional practice of sealing legal and other official documents with red ribbon

4)  rub salt in one’s wound (to add insult to injury): a cruel form of torture in which people being whipped due to some sort of offense would have salt rubbed in their wounds as an added bit of punishment

5)   parting shot (a derogatory remark made as one exits): a direct descendant of the term ‘Parthian shot’ which alludes to the Parthians’ (a tribe of warriors before the birth of Christ) unsportsmanlike conduct of firing arrows at their retreating enemies

6)  loose cannon (someone or something that is reckless): sometime the cannons on warships would break loose from their braces and roll dangerously around the deck of a ship resulting in injuries to crewmen or broken structures

7)  heads will roll (a threat of punishment): dates back to a time when the guillotine was a popular form of execution in France, and beheadings were common in England

  get out of the bed on the wrong side (to start the day in a bad mood): an old superstition warning people to get out of bed with right foot first, lest bad luck befalls on them

9)  caught red-handed (to be caught in the act): back when it was a common crime to kill someone else’s livestock for food, the only sure evidence was to catch the perpetrator with the blood of the animal on his hands

10) break the ice (to make a start): any ship traveling in the Arctic or Antarctic waters was forced to carry with them smaller ships or at least large tools for breaking ice around the ship to make a path

Read and discover.  The ball is now in your court…