Funny Picture (a.k.a. my pre-UAAP special edition blog entry)

Ho-ho-ho!  It's gloating time, baby. 


So here's the background story:

During the second round of the UAAP wars last year, when barbs and insults between Ateneo and La Salle were reaching fever-pitch, the DLSU side came up with the mother of all insulting banners which is shown above.  The message is derived from the then-current 2006 Times Higher Education World University Rankings - which placed DLSU at the 392nd spot, and the Ateneo at the 484th spot.  When this particular banner was unfurled, there was a collective groan on the Ateneo side.  There simply was no possible smart-alecky retort for that "I'm-pissing-on-you're-face-and-you-can't-argues-with-facts-haha!-try-to-beats-that!" assault.

La Sallites everywhere, including it's own school administration, took advantage of this judgment of a disinterested third party by pubicizing its feat with great fanfare in every possible medium it could get its hands on.  After all, the Ateneo ranking above La Salle is old news.  BUT La Salle ranking above the Ateneo? - it almost exists only in the imagination of La Sallites.  That very picture above was spread to different online fora, presumably without the permission of the photographer (who, if he's a La Sallite, wouldn't have minded, I'm sure.)  Similar pictures spread, and tens of thousands of pro-La Salle blog comments sprung up like weeds in healthy garden soil.

Suddenly, Ateneo's own "Suspended" and "Wrong Spelling" banners against La Salle ate the dust.  They weren't funny anymore, and worse, DLSU went on to become the 2007 UAAP Mens' Senior Basketball Champions in spectacular fashion.  More collective groan.


Now here's the funny part:

It appears that just a few months after that infamous banner incident - when La Sallites were still gloating, and Ateneans were still sourgraping - the 2007 rankings came out.  (Specifically, it was November 2007).  And according to that list, the following are the Philippine universities that made it to the world's top 500:

(#398) University of the Philippines; and

(#451) Ateneo de Manila University

What?  No DLSU?  Yup, that's right.  No DLSU in the top 500.  Oh wait, they're there.  In the footnote - ranked # 519.  HA. HA. HA. 

This time, it was the La Sallites' turn to be dumbstruck - like, "What's the f*ck is just happened to our celebration?  You're mean we're loosers again?  But aren't we the championship?"  Here's what happened my dear greenies:  You. Got. Served.  (<--- This, in homage to an anti-Ateneo blog entry I came across recently that had those exact words as its title.)

Now, the Jesuit administrators of the Ateneo (i.e. Nebres, et. al.) were way too classier than their DLSU counterparts, so there was almost no official comment on the Ateneo's vindication.  The rest of the blue-blooded population, however, bordered on false modesty by publicly trying to brush the whole thing off and claiming we couldn't be bothered by rank-consciousness... if only to be consistent with our sourgraping when the 2006 rankings came out. 

[^ If a given population collectively undertook the widest and most conscious effort to be consistent with a previous year's behavior, then that achievement belongs to us Ateneans between November 2007 and today. ]

But false modesty aside, you just know deep inside we're all having a huge laugh at La Sallites.  And for good reason.  Once again, we are witnessing another glaring example of La Salle's one-time motto of "Bring Out the Best in Ourselves" catching up with them.  (I swear, I didn't make that up.  They really had that motto in the 1990's.  Yeah, talk about shooting yourself in the foot.  )



But look, the new UAAP season is approaching!  No room for false modesty here.  Once again the time is almost ripe for childish banter and irrational (and not so irrational) insulting on both sides.  No surprise that most of them aren't remotely related to basketball.  It's time to cheer your throats hoarse, and be a rabid fanatic for three glorious months.

Let the games begin!!!