A most unlucky number

The country’s wealthiest man (according to Fortune magazine) Lucio Tan turned 69 – oops, 70 – last Thursday.

Mr. Tan will be celebrating his 70th birthday this year and the next, following the practice among the Chinese (who are, after all, an extremely practical people) of ignoring the number nine because it is considered terribly unlucky.

If the number eight is considered to bring wealth (because of its double circles), the number nine is said to be bring closure such as bankruptcy and death (because it is the last single digit before the number 10).

By the way, Mr. Tan was not in town to celebrate his birthday, but he will be back to attend next week’s monthly meeting of his pet project, the Foundation for Upgrading the Standards of Education or FUSE.

It is said that Mr. Tan is at his most happiest – and most magnanimous – when listening to experts talk about what can and should be done to improve the delivery of educational services in the country.

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Did you know 1: Shopping at the Greenhills tiangge could just possibly earn you as many brownie points in heaven as dropping money in the collection box of your favorite church.

You see, the Catholic Church shares in the rental revenues of Ortigas & Co., the developer and manager of the commercial center.

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Did you know 2: All major shampoo brands (such as those manufactured by Procter & Gamble Phils. headed by president Johnip Cua) carry a brand equity copyright on how the hair should fall and move in their respective commercials.

Basically, this means a particular shampoo brand has the exclusive right to show hair that moves in a zig-zag manner and another shampoo brand has the exclusive right to show hair that moves in a wavy manner and so on.

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Did you know 3: Fresh milk (under the brand name, Milkee Way) is now available at the National Dairy Authority in Quezon City.

The way Administrator Salvacion Bulatong sees it, this is one more venue through which NDA constituents can sell their products. (The traditional way is through a milk feeding program in public schools that is funded by the local government).

Fresh milk is delivered to NDA every Monday and Wednesday and sells for P45 a liter.

As everybody knows, fresh milk has a shorter shelf life than UHT but contains more of the vitamins and minerals needed by the human body. Specifically, fresh milk contains more calcium than the UHT variety.

Oh yes, NDA also sells locally made Gouda cheese, which is made from fresh milk and does not use extenders. The cheese was developed through a Dutch government grant that brought in trainors in making cheese.