Can we clear up a minor ethnic spelling concern that occasionally pops up every now and then? People from the Philippines are Filipinos, spelled with an “F” and not a “P” or a “Ph.” (Actually, it was “Pilipino” until recently, and I think some traditionalists still prefer to use the older spelling, but that’s a whole other issue.) Today, the normally accepted spelling is “Filipino,” or optionally, “Filipina” for ladies. The traditional “Pilipino” is also acceptable, but somewhat odd. I’m not sure why exactly this is so, but it may have something to do with the new expanded Filipino alphabet introduced in the 1980s, which included letters which had not been in the traditional alphabet, including C, F, Ñ and X.