i feel this urgent need to speak to this filipina who only last sunday won $100,000 from a promotional contest of a local daily.
actually, she didn't. she and perhaps a thousand other readers of the new york daily news who thought they had this windfall all in the bag didn't win a dime from the tabloid's scratch n' match game.
the circulation boosting game works like this: its sunday edition carries 8 scratch off cards (2 for sunday, 1 for each other day of the week). hidden under 15 numbered boxes on each card are figures for cash prizes ranging from $25 to $100,000. each day, the tabloid prints the numbers of 10 boxes to be scratched off that day. a lucky reader who scratches off 3 numbers revealing identical cash amounts wins that prize.
after this filipina did scratch 3 identical $100,000 figures on sunday, she reportedly called her aging parents back in malabon. she promised them that as soon as their visas are approved, she would fly them to the big apple pronto.
but then, the paper, upon seeing the flood of irate prize claimants, backtracked and claimed a typo it had committed, turning her and thousands others into chumps. in 1999, the same tabloid ran a similar game and, what do you know, also reneged on its contest promises. that year, the alleged cause of the snafu was eerily the same as this time - a printing error.
i really need to see this pinay. for i know how it is for someone to be screwed big time by a big, fat, lying company.
growing up, the mother of one of my island posse won pepsi cola's promotional contest.
my friend's mother, like several thousand other noveau millionaire manqué throughout the archipelago, was struck dumb upon seeing the numbers 3-4-9 emblazoned under the cap of her soda.
now that she thought she was a bona fide millionairess, she planned on letting go of her not so lucrative fishmonger rounds, the working time of which was ruining her circadian rhythm. what with the 2 am wake up call.
but alas, pepsi philippines, like the new york daily news, dashed quickly the hope it bogusly sold to its loyal patrons.
from then on, my friend's mother, not only began drinking coca cola exclusively, but started having this punishing night prayer sessions.
she hurriedly built this altar near the entrance to their kitchen. on it, she placed a gussied up image of st. jude thaddeus which had this conspicuous nick on its right ear lobe. in front of the image, she always had nine black candles. lying on the feet of the idol was the soda crown with the winning numbers.
my friend's mother would start her prayers just after the 8 pm angelus pealing was heard throughout the island. then while the rest of her family would retire, she would go on with her prayers until it was time for her to go for her fish rounds at 2 in the morning.
despite pleas from her husband, she went on with this grueling routine until one day, she was just found lying by a dirt road, her vatful of now red eyed fish scattered around her like a silvery wreath of flowers. she kept on muttering the st. jude novena while fingering the winning numbers on the dirt.
just a year after she was brought to the asylum at the city, her husband brought home a young girl and started sleeping with her in what was their bedroom.
my friend never spoke about her mother again. well, only this one time.
this when we went to the city to take the state university entrance examinations. in the bus, he asked me if i could accompany him to visit his mother after our exam. he said he wasn't sure if he could stand looking at her that way on his own.
we first saw her mom being sunned in a grassless expanse in front of the asylum together with the other patients. upon seeing him, his mother dashed towards us. while running, she groped for an imaginary purse from the front pocket of her hospital gown.
when finally she got to us, just steps from the gate, she opened her imagined purse and handed him air bills, counting them as loudly as she could.
it took her a very long time to count every imaginary bill she could give to her now quivering son as she made certain not to mention the numbers 3, 4, and 9 in her enumeration.
i need to see this new york pinay. i think it is urgent that i must.