Long live Ka Ernie

When I was still in grade school at G. del Pilar Elementary School, in Tondo, Manila, I once got into an argument with my classmate over whether Ernie Baron could answer every known question to man. (Please take note that this was before brother Ely Soriano, came into the limelight.) Looking back now after hearing countless broadcasts of him recommending his signature 'cleansing diet' to his listeners, during those times that I rode a taxi home, (mostly during the time that I was wasting my life advancing Erap's ouster on the streets of Edsa). The answer is apparently 'no'. Ernie can't answer every known question to mankind.

But sill you can't help but think whether the fact that he's smart at all is true. I mean he was of a superstitious lot, that's much in the same league with Johnny Midnight & SOM's Charlie Barreto. He believed that cosmic energies can be tapped and captured using his trademark plastic pyramids ( a practice that my late uncle and aunt subscribed to); he claims that his 'cleansing diet' is the actual one used by the Queen of England; he taught us to rely on his pito-pito for medicine; but more importantly he taught us that "knowledge is power" and that was before the legendary anarcho-punk band Propagandhi echoed their battle cry: "knowledge is power. arm yourself!"

He passed away yesterday leaving a legacy of his so-called 'genius' and I am ashamed to admit that I owe him a great deal to him, for espousing that being smart and having all of these stock knowledge in my thick skull as something that is cool.

So even if he's a fraud for making us believe that he could answer any question thrown at him, when in reality its just a cheap conspiracy that he and the nice folks at ABS-CBN/DZMM cooked up (he has his own research staff); or that it is justice to say that all the parody done to him by Vic Sotto in TVJ is his just deserve (especially the way Vic spoke the word "Kamias".); or that he sold TV antenna's in the age of cable television; or even if his cleansing diet didn't prolong his death nor his pito-pito, lactovitale and pyramids didn't give him another chance at life; we could all but thank him for his life of making the word knowledge cool.