Hachikō “The Pooch” Inugami

Welcome back to Say Hello to My Little FACT!, our recurring blog segment where we dust off the archives, challenge conventional pop-culture timelines, and shine a spotlight on fascinating historical truths that will make you look at entertainment history a little differently. Whenever we talk about classic Philippine cinema and komiks, there is a lingering, somewhat unfair stereotype that local…

Whenever a major geopolitical crisis breaks out, I find myself watching a familiar ritual unfold on the global stage. American diplomats, lawmakers, and commentators take to podiums and social media feeds to condemn ethnic cleansing, state-sponsored violence, and human rights abuses abroad. Their language is often absolute, invoking universal moral standards and the rules-based international…

For the longest time, I pronounced the Spanish ll with strict yeísmo—using a simple “y” sound—and I honestly abhorred the use of lleísmo (/ly/) in Filipino languages. Whenever I heard someone emphasize the crisp /ly/ in words like apelyido, sipilyo, or kutsilyo, it sounded to my ears like an unnatural phonetic stiffness. Why couldn’t we just smooth it out like most modern Spanish speakers in…

If you caught my Valentine’s Day article, you already know we went deep into the laboratory of pro-wrestling physics to break down the mechanics of the Crossface Chickenjoy—a submission hold I myself invented that was so absurdly agonizing it shouldn’t exist, which I recently evolved into an even more inescapable nightmare. It is no longer a stepover toehold crossface chickenwing, it is now an…

Welcome back to another entry in my sandbox series, “My Imagination is the Limit.” If you’ve been following my writing over the years, you know I love pulling on the threads of sports history, workplace culture, and localized media mechanics. I like asking the uncomfortable questions about how our institutions are built—and how they could be rebuilt better. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot…

As a historian and true-crime enthusiast, I spend a lot of time digging through dusty archives and forgotten court records. Recently, I stumbled upon a case from late 19th-century Mexico that reads less like a historical police report and more like a high-stakes, tragic melodrama. It’s the legend of María Villa, a woman who dared to claim something society insisted she didn’t have: honor. Set…

If you are anything like me, you occasionally fall down deep, late-night YouTube rabbit holes. While searching for nostalgic mid-century television broadcasts, I stumbled upon what I now consider to be two of my absolute favorite American used car commercials. However, to call them “commercials” is a bit of a misnomer. They were never meant for the public eye. I’m talking about the legendary,…

Last July 24th, shortly after I hit “publish” on my last piece—the deep dive into The Satanic Temple’s Seven Tenets—that the realization hit me. I was sitting at my desk, the humid Pampanga afternoon pressing against the windowpane, reviewing the comparison table I had just constructed. I had meticulously mapped TST’s principles against the historic Christian Virtues. Charity was there,…

A bad ending that ended up being good. Like many people who occasionally find themselves navigating the emotional depths of YouTube, I once stumbled upon a video that completely stopped me in my tracks. Through the glow of my screen, I watched a scene unfold inside a crowded room in Greeley, Colorado—a municipal vehicle auction from May 2015. But this wasn’t your standard liquidation of…

Long before YouTube algorithms served us endless loops of product reviews, the art of the pitch belonged to the television. While my sister would be glued to the television watching Heidi, Girl of the Alps, and my parents would faithfully tune in for the chaotic fun of Eat Bulaga, I harbored my own, slightly bizarre television obsession. It started in the mid-90s, when the Southern Broadcasting…

Welcome back to another “On This Day”. As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time analyzing media narratives, localizations, and internet culture, there are few things I find more fascinating than tracing a viral meme back to its raw, unhinged source material. Today, we are looking at a masterclass in comedic editing that originated from a very real, very heated political meltdown. If…

“Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest!” – Jack Karlson I still remember the first time I stumbled across the video. It was the late 2000s, the golden era of early YouTube, when grainy, out-of-context clips spread like wildfire across forums and social media. Amidst the chaos of the early internet, one particular video stood out as a masterpiece of accidental comedy, Shakespearean theatricality,…

If there’s one thing that 17 years of working at the same shipping company has taught me, it’s that people are incredibly complex, and sometimes, the most complicated problems are best handled with a healthy dose of humor. After a long week of dealing with logistics, emails, and the daily grind of customer service, I have a long-standing weekend tradition: kicking back, grabbing a cold drink, and…

This news feature highlights another Tokyo-based tech company taking the exact same feline-friendly approach to lower stress and boost communication among its staff. I’ve spent my fair share of time in high-pressure corporate environments. You know the drill: glaring screens, endless lines of code, the relentless ticking of the clock, and that heavy, palpable stress that hangs over a typical IT…

This AI-generated short clip highlights the emotional impact of the massive financial bonus on Fibrebond’s workforce and illustrates how the money transformed their lives. I read a lot of business news, and to be perfectly honest, a lot of it can be disheartening. We are constantly inundated with stories of massive corporate buyouts where founders walk away billionaires while the rank-and-file…

As a writer, I often catch myself daydreaming about escaping the relentless noise of modern life. When the emails pile up and the news cycle becomes too heavy, the fantasy of abandoning the “rat race” to live on a remote, sun-drenched island feels incredibly tempting. But for most of us, it remains just that—a daydream. Then, I learned about Brendon Grimshaw. He didn’t just chase the island…

This clip captures the hilariously dramatic moment Yuji Nishida slides across the court to apologize to the line judge. As someone who grew up absorbing Japanese pop culture—from countless anime series to the unique etiquette woven into their daily lives—I thought I had seen every possible variation of the “dogeza.” For the uninitiated, a dogeza is a traditional Japanese act of bowing where you…