RONALD REAGAN would have been pleased reading Wednesday?s banner headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ?Good morning, America.?

That it appeared in the leading left-leaning broadsheet-tabloid in a terrorist-plagued Third World country should even warm the cockles of Republican hearts.

Set in red letters over blue background, the headline is a takeoff, apparently unbeknownst to the writer, from the 1984 campaign slogan ?Morning in America? of the actor-turned-US president, when the United States was fighting the Evil Empire on the foreign front, and economic malaise on the home front.

It is entirely possible, of course, that the unidentified editor was simply addicted to the ABC network?s morning show of the same title. (When Cocktales was still connected with the Inquirer, the favorite shows in the newsroom were ?Eat Bulaga? and ?Jeopardy.?)

In contrast with the Inquirer, which incidentally has positioned itself as the ?dominant, most respected and influential media organization for Filipinos here and abroad, a world-class processor of news and information,? these are what the pro-Obama mainstream media in the continental USA bannered on their front pages:

? The unabashedly pro-Democrat Boston Globe: ?The Time Has Come?;

? New York Times: Obama Takes Oath, and Nation in Crisis Embraces the Moment;

? Washington Post: Obama Takes Charge;

? Philadelphia Inquirer: Call to Remake America;

? Chicago Tribune, reporting on their favorite son: Remaking America;

? San Francisco Chronicle: ?The World Has Changed?; and

? The Wall Street Journal: President Barack Obama.

Even Murdoch?s New York Post was fairly subdued, with its headline a mirror-image of its big-sister financial paper?s ?President Barack Obama.?

The other Big Apple tab, Daily News, chose a more euphoric ?A Glorious Beginning.?

Back to the Inquirer, the editors who were last seen going over the collectible issue, according to the newsroom fly, were managing editor and former UP activist Jose Nolasco, night editor Gabriel Formoso Jr. and the editor-in-chief herself, the nocturnal Leticia Jimenez Magsanoc.

Taken together with the front-page editorial, ?From Sea to Shining Sea,? also on the same issue, plus the morning-after har-har-har of Inquirer desk editor Leah Makabenta, Cocktales is almost sure as to who had actually conceived and penned those cloying lines.

168 takes over Meisic Mall

Despite being raided a number of times, the popular 168 Mall seems to be going from strength to strength.

Not only is it building a residential condo-complex beside it, 168 has even taken over the neighboring competition, Meisic Mall, at the corner of Reina Regente and Felipe II streets in Binondo.

According to shoppers who have been in the area, the 168 owners have renamed the under-performing shopping center to ?1188?, so as not to confuse it with the original 168.

And because of the takeover, the second-floor SE (Save on Everything) Hypermart in Meisic Mall is closing down by the end of the month, to give up the space in favor of being partitioned into closet-like stalls that have become a trademark of 168.

To clear the inventory, the hypermart has even marked down by another 30 percent the already cheap but crappy goods the area is known for.

Heard through the grapevine

With the official announcement of Intel finally closing down its Philippine operations after 35 years, it has become clear why, in the last few months, Intel Technology Philippines manager Ricardo Banaag was spending more and more time with his new venture, the French restaurant La Regalade on Pasay Road.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)