FALLACY: Cakes and Fathers



source: eastleigh.towntalk



Last Sunday evening, we celebrated Father’s Day at my parent’s house. Our original plan was to bring my father and mother at the mall and have dinner, but because of the heavy rains, we cancelled our ‘date.’ We opted to have a simple dinner at our house, where we brought food and some presents and celebrated with my Tatay. It was a simple dinner, but Ganda had fun taking pictures of our gifts to her Lolo Max  (Chivas and boxer shorts*) as well as the food.

Earlier in the afternoon, the three of us – Ganda, hubby and I – went to church and then to the mall and had an early dinner together where Ganda gave our gifts to hubby (boxer shorts and a PvZ shirt). Then we went out to buy cakes and kakanin. My mother asked me not to buy regular cakes anymore, but a brazo de mercedes (a creme-filled log cake made of meringue rolls filled with golden yellow custard filling), so we headed for Goldilocks. Surprisingly, when I got inside, there were no more cakes – no more log cakes, round cakes or rectangular or square cakes. All their display shelves and refs were empty, even their egg pies, cassava cakes and brownies were all gone. Panicking, I almost run and left my hubby and Ganda, and immediately went to Red Ribbon and found a horde – two long lines of people battling and grappling for the few round cakes left, almost snatching and grabbing what was left in the display shelf. I wasn’t expecting what I saw and I was really pissed of being the last in the line. I was about to complain to my hubby when they caught up with me, but then I realized there was nothing to be mad about. Those people were just like me, wanting a little something to bring home to their fathers or husbands or uncles or brothers. So I just whispered to him, “Nakakatuwa naman ang mga Pinoy, love na love ang mga Tatay nila. Inubos lahat ang cakes sa SM.” Those who have heard me smiled in confirmation.

It was funny, but almost true. So if we are to make an analysis out of this, it would be:         

         It was Father’s day.

        All the cakes in SM were gone.

        Therefore, most Filipinos love their fathers and husbands.

I know that this is another logical fallacy – the fallacy of hasty generalization which commonly involves basing a broad conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a small group that fails to sufficiently represent the whole population (from wikipedia). Despite my fallacious conclusion, I am certain that there is still some truth to this. And I am so glad to know that there are many more lucky children out there.

We ended up ordering sanrival (four layers of cashew meringue sandwiched with French buttercream, and topped with chopped cashews) instead of brazo. It was a great choice for a great dinner on a great evening with a great dad.

(Eggheads, off you go. There will be no more seatworks for today. I have to go to the bakeshop and eat brazo.)

* As I was paying for the Chivas, here is my conversation with Ganda:

Ganda: From whom is that gift? Is it from you?

Me: No, all these gifts are from you.

Ganda: Even the wine? Lola always gets mad whenever Lolo drinks.

Me: Yes, even the wine.

Ganda: Ah, ok. You’ll just tell them it was from me, so Lola will not get mad at you for spoiling Lolo.

Me: Hmmm… Yeah.