Timeout: Welcome, Babe!

It has been sometime since I ‘threatened’ to publicly welcome to the club " Babe" Romualdez, STAR’s newest columnist. Being much younger that I, the charming, amiable Babe does not yet have grandnephews and grandnieces who, in my case – incredibly – call me "Babe" or deferentially, if paradoxically, "Tita Baby".

Being the youngest in the family, I was nicknamed "Babe Girl". Ultimately, as I grew older, Baby" was cropped, with "Girl" remaining – which was (is) bad enough. At the UP, Armando D. Manalo, who caught up with our literature classes eventually – his genius flowered so late we thought he was a mental retardate – dropped ‘Girl" "and retained "Baby". Alas, it has been that way ever since for friends and foes alike, all because of the "culprit" Armando. In this regard, I shall ask Babe Romualdez for the etymology of his nickname, and demand a full explanation for how Jose Manuel ever metamorphosed into Babe, a nickname which, like mine, will stick long – after he has started coddling a great grandson.

Even ambassadors, or at least a few of them, call me by my nickname – hopefully, not in derision. Once, the very likeable Mike Anderson, former US Public Affairs Counselor, introduced me to a newly arrived VIP by saying, "Mr. So-and-So, this is Baby Orosa." The visiting official looked at me so quizzically, I would have hidden under a table had there been one nearby.

Foreigners should know that with our "crazy" penchant for nicknames, Carmen is Carmenchu, Menchu, Menchit, Menching, Mameng, Chit and Chitang, Jose, which is conveniently short, is perversely lengthened to Joselito, Joseling, Pepito, Peping, Pepe and Lito. Benjamin is Ben, Benny, Benjie, Benjo, or Bening.

Rugged individualists (bless them) staunchly refuse to be called by a nickname. Our president and CEO Miguel G. Belmonte is still Miguel, not Mike or Miguelito. All you have to do with the name Maximo Soliven is shorten it to Max. However, Teodoro Benigno is Teddyman to distinguish him from former publisher columnist Teddyboy Locsin, now an eminent CongressMAN. Make no mistake about Joker Arroyo. He is no joke. For his challenging role at the impeachment proceedings, legions now regard Erap a joke.

My book of light essays entitled What’s in a (Nick) Name? proved to be a "best seller" because my distinguished colleague Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc wrote in her review, "The book is funny" (she was not joking), and because it is brilliantly witty, (I am joking).

An episode in that book hanks back to one afternoon some American classmates and I were walking toward our graduate house. Out of nowhere came a group of Harvard boys, all Filipinos, each greeting me with a hearty. "Hi, Baby!" Wide-eyed, my companions asked me in utter amazement, "Are you everybody’s baby".

At home, I am in select company. Off-hand, there are the terrific actress-director Baby Barredo and our indefatigable ambassador to Chile Baby Puyat Reyes.

In US sports, the great batter was Babe Ruth; the equally great woman golfer, Babe Didrickson. I mustn’t forget such "cute" nicknames as Bibot (Zeneida Amador’s), Cherry Pie Villonco and Wopsy which I actually read in an obituary page!

Once, a foreigner asked me: "May I call you Baby?" I quickly replied, "You may call me any name. Just don’t call me names." Right, Babe?