The big news last Wednesday, being as it was carried by most local dailies, was Pampanga Vice Governor Yeng Guiao’s lambaste that “it was the executive department led by Governor Eddie Panlilio who goofed on the 2009 provincial budget, not the legislative department, which made it inoperative as declared by the regional office of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).”
Goofed.
The quoted passage was actually the lead paragraph of the banner story of an everyday newspaper, not Punto! Central Luzon, hereabouts. It’s a type of lead mass media practitioners might identify as a ‘summary lead’ which, quite obvious enough, tries to sum up what the entire news report is about.
That lead, the report’s banner headline (“Guiao: Guv, Capitol execs bungled ’09 prov’l budget”), and the italicized strapline (“Budget failure laughable, the PB presiding officer says”), they all conspire to make clear and dear the most important news of the day.
Bungled.
That is until, of course, you got excited enough by its screaming banner headline, its teasing strapline, and its revealing lead paragraph you dared read on to Paragraph Number 2.
Which was: “On Monday, after the 5775 Pamiaduangan project launch, Panlilio threw in the towel to the Provincial Board, saying it was their fault the budget became inoperative.”
Threw in the towel. That one really did.
Tell me: Why do people use idiomatic expressions? Why do they say something but really mean something else? Why do they have to be vague when it is their dear intent to be clear?
I tell you: Because idiomatic expressions are ordinarily meant to add color to otherwise dull speech. Because idioms, too, are precisely meant to help us readily understand what the other is trying to say since the figurative meaning has become quite obvious due to their common use.
But, take it instead from Pareng John Saeed: “An idiom is a word or a phrase that means something different than the words imply if interpreted literally. When a person uses an idiom, the listener might take the actual meaning wrong if he or she has not heard of this figure of speech before.”
So, how did the reporter and editor of Paragraph Number 2 ‘goofed’ and ‘bungled’ the job as far as the idiom ‘threw in the towel’ was concerned?
First, to throw in the towel means to quit or give up in the face of defeat, to admit lack of hope of victory in a game or a fight. This idiom came from the world of boxing, as it was customary for the corner of a vanquished prizefighter to literally throw into the ring the very towel or sponge they use to wipe his face at the end of a round.
We all saw such act of mercy during the eleventh round of the first Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera match when the Mexican’s trainer threw in the towel to save a proud but groggy Barrera from being pummeled to death by a raging but accurate Pacman.
Now, it is quite accurate to say that, in the case of Paragraph Number 2, there is a raging fight between the governor and the members of the provincial board. Both camps, you see, are too proud to accept fault over the fiasco of a provincial budget the region’s DBM office said had become inoperative. But both camps, too, are far from being groggy that one must throw in the towel.
This much is clear from the way Governor Panlilio and Vice Governor Guiao continue to trade jabs and hooks and uppercuts reported in the media as accusations and counter-accusations.
And if this is so, and it really is so, then for reporter and editor of Paragraph Number 2 to say that “Panlilio threw in the towel to the Provincial Board” is so wrong. Not least because it remains unclear who’s the victor and the vanquished in the duel, but more so because reporter and editor wrongly decided to add where Panlilio threw the towel—‘to the Provincial Board.’
For good measure, here are some good examples of how to throw in the towel real good: In the eleventh round, Barrera’s corner threw in the towel. They had to throw in the towel to save their proud but groggy Barrera from being pummeled to death by our raging but accurate Pacman.
There is, these days, a growing indignation over LBC’s TV advertisement depicting Edu Manzano as the quiz master in a spelling bee where different elementary students were asked to spell ‘remittance’ and ‘instant’ and ‘affordable’ and all students answered L-B-C.
Not cute but acutely dangerous, said education officials who fear the negative backlash of the TV ad especially on the young and impressionable minds of elementary students.
On this, sober or not, we couldn’t agree more.
The mass media, these days, fills such a huge space in the education of our kids we couldn’t allow these things to pass. We allow these things to pass and we might as well, a sober Jose Rizal might say, throw in the towel on the future of this nation as being at the hands of our youth.
And the same holds true with local dailies that constantly insult the public with their mangled English language.
Besides, as reminded us recently by veteran mediaman Bong Lacson, it is written somewhere in the Credo of the Pampanga Press Club that: “I believe that (journalism) as a career, its practitioner can ennoble himself by elevating its standard to a level worthy of public esteem and respect.”
Cheers.
Goofed.
The quoted passage was actually the lead paragraph of the banner story of an everyday newspaper, not Punto! Central Luzon, hereabouts. It’s a type of lead mass media practitioners might identify as a ‘summary lead’ which, quite obvious enough, tries to sum up what the entire news report is about.
That lead, the report’s banner headline (“Guiao: Guv, Capitol execs bungled ’09 prov’l budget”), and the italicized strapline (“Budget failure laughable, the PB presiding officer says”), they all conspire to make clear and dear the most important news of the day.
Bungled.
That is until, of course, you got excited enough by its screaming banner headline, its teasing strapline, and its revealing lead paragraph you dared read on to Paragraph Number 2.
Which was: “On Monday, after the 5775 Pamiaduangan project launch, Panlilio threw in the towel to the Provincial Board, saying it was their fault the budget became inoperative.”
Threw in the towel. That one really did.
Tell me: Why do people use idiomatic expressions? Why do they say something but really mean something else? Why do they have to be vague when it is their dear intent to be clear?
I tell you: Because idiomatic expressions are ordinarily meant to add color to otherwise dull speech. Because idioms, too, are precisely meant to help us readily understand what the other is trying to say since the figurative meaning has become quite obvious due to their common use.
But, take it instead from Pareng John Saeed: “An idiom is a word or a phrase that means something different than the words imply if interpreted literally. When a person uses an idiom, the listener might take the actual meaning wrong if he or she has not heard of this figure of speech before.”
So, how did the reporter and editor of Paragraph Number 2 ‘goofed’ and ‘bungled’ the job as far as the idiom ‘threw in the towel’ was concerned?
First, to throw in the towel means to quit or give up in the face of defeat, to admit lack of hope of victory in a game or a fight. This idiom came from the world of boxing, as it was customary for the corner of a vanquished prizefighter to literally throw into the ring the very towel or sponge they use to wipe his face at the end of a round.
We all saw such act of mercy during the eleventh round of the first Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera match when the Mexican’s trainer threw in the towel to save a proud but groggy Barrera from being pummeled to death by a raging but accurate Pacman.
Now, it is quite accurate to say that, in the case of Paragraph Number 2, there is a raging fight between the governor and the members of the provincial board. Both camps, you see, are too proud to accept fault over the fiasco of a provincial budget the region’s DBM office said had become inoperative. But both camps, too, are far from being groggy that one must throw in the towel.
This much is clear from the way Governor Panlilio and Vice Governor Guiao continue to trade jabs and hooks and uppercuts reported in the media as accusations and counter-accusations.
And if this is so, and it really is so, then for reporter and editor of Paragraph Number 2 to say that “Panlilio threw in the towel to the Provincial Board” is so wrong. Not least because it remains unclear who’s the victor and the vanquished in the duel, but more so because reporter and editor wrongly decided to add where Panlilio threw the towel—‘to the Provincial Board.’
For good measure, here are some good examples of how to throw in the towel real good: In the eleventh round, Barrera’s corner threw in the towel. They had to throw in the towel to save their proud but groggy Barrera from being pummeled to death by our raging but accurate Pacman.
There is, these days, a growing indignation over LBC’s TV advertisement depicting Edu Manzano as the quiz master in a spelling bee where different elementary students were asked to spell ‘remittance’ and ‘instant’ and ‘affordable’ and all students answered L-B-C.
Not cute but acutely dangerous, said education officials who fear the negative backlash of the TV ad especially on the young and impressionable minds of elementary students.
On this, sober or not, we couldn’t agree more.
The mass media, these days, fills such a huge space in the education of our kids we couldn’t allow these things to pass. We allow these things to pass and we might as well, a sober Jose Rizal might say, throw in the towel on the future of this nation as being at the hands of our youth.
And the same holds true with local dailies that constantly insult the public with their mangled English language.
Besides, as reminded us recently by veteran mediaman Bong Lacson, it is written somewhere in the Credo of the Pampanga Press Club that: “I believe that (journalism) as a career, its practitioner can ennoble himself by elevating its standard to a level worthy of public esteem and respect.”
Cheers.
