intros back from the dead.

in the spirit of easter, i'm resurrecting introductions that never saw print for one reason or another--these reasons may be painfully obvious once you've read them.

start monologue.
should i be bothered that paragraphs that have more of "me" in them wind up in limbo rather than on the pages of the newspaper for The Thinking Reader?
but then, i'm not my audience (i'm not a Thinking Reader, i go straight to the funnies of other dailies, because we don't have funnies, we don't have "your stars" either), so the lines that appeal most to me inevitably die.
end monologue.

i present to you, intros back from the dead, plus comments:

Just another manic mall day
When rapper Andrew E.'s ditty "'Wag kang Gamol" (Don't be a Gamol) came out sometime in 1995, most didn't know what a "gamol" was and why it wasn't desirable to be one. Some thought that the term referred to a mallrat, since the song was released within a few years of SM Megamall's opening. Whether it's true or not, "Gamol" has morphed into the nickname of the biggest mall in the Philippines. Which brings us to the topic at hand- supermalls. (Feb. 2005)

//i liked the title, but i can see why Thinking Readers won't relate to the finer points of Gamol etymology.

Does going global mean going gone for SMEs?
If a goldfish accustomed to the fishbowl life were thrown into the open ocean, one wouldn't expect it to come out again, unless it was in the form of sushi.
The times we live in have been labeled as the age of borderless societies. Borderless in the sense that information, services and goods flow in and out of countries with little or no restrictions. (April 2005)

//the title, along with the sushi, disappeared.

Mario's: from fine dining to franchising
Mario's has nothing to do with the video game about two plumbers with a fondness for fungi. (Feb. 2006)

//when i was interviewing mario, i kept asking him about italian food. note to self: mario's serves paella, sisig, kare-kare (definitely NOT italian food)... he had a moustache for crissakes, can you blame me?

Ensuring good karma: corporate social responsibility (tongue-in-cheek)
Let's face it, when you're on top, you become a prime target for competitors. While you're happily looking for new horizons to conquer, those behind you are sharpening their knives, taking aim at your large, profitable back.
Perhaps corporate social responsibility isn't a purely benevolent concept. Think about it, in the world of sports, when somebody badmouths a winner with a reputation for being a "nice guy," he's inevitably branded as a sore loser. On the other hand, if the winner has an ego the size of his paycheck and an attitude to match, the press and the public will root for whomever is able to knock the wind out of his sails.
So with businesses, it's easier to forgive a huge company that charges an arm and a leg for their services as long as they provide arms and legs to the more unfortunate-arms, legs, houses, electricity, whatever. (April 2006)

//i knew this was going to die, but i had to write it. i saved it under the filename "i wish"

Julie's Bakeshop: anthology of bread
As exhibited by pan de coco, pan de regla, and all pans in between, Filipino bread typology is rife with humor, imagination, and creativity. With 500 bakeshops spread nationwide and more than 200 varieties of bread, Julie's Bakeshop has established itself as the fastest rising dough-maker in the industry. (April 2006)

//pan de regla and the rest of the first sentence didn't make it. but i'm glad that the "fastest rising dough-maker" bit stayed, that phrase took me a good few minutes of actual thinking. i'm not sure how many got the "anthology of bread" reference, dough... i mean "though."

happy easter.