Grappling with the alphabet stew of world insurgencies can have its pitfalls.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discovered as much Friday as she fielded questions about the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during a town hall-style gathering in Manila.

MILF has the same acronym as an obscene phrase that gained currency in recent years. It was used in a Saturday Night Live political sketch last year in which characters playing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton criticized sexism in the U.S. election campaign.

Questioned repeatedly about peace efforts with the MILF in the southern Philippines, Clinton struggled with how to speak the acronym.

“I’m encouraged by what I hear about the progress in the peace efforts that are going on between the government and MILF,” Clinton said, pronouncing it like a word — the same way as the acronym for the obscene phrase.

Then she switched and adopted the local usage — saying the letters individually.

Clinton said the time seemed ripe for a peace deal with the MILF, which has been fighting the Manila government for nearly 30 years.

She urged both sides to work to clinch an agreement while the timing is right, noting how Middle East peace efforts had been idle for years after her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, failed to secure a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in the late 1990s.

“If people are in the mood and willing to make peace,” she said, “do not sleep, do not rest until you finally get there.”

Other tidbits from an hour of fielding questions at the town hall session at a Manila university:

Clinton had a crush on singer Fabian as a girl and headed a Fabian fan club.

Hillary and Bill Clinton try to schedule time for themselves when not occupied with their busy schedules.

“We like to take long walks, we like to go to the movies, we like to go out to dinner, we like to catch up on our sleep,” she said.

And will daughter Chelsea follow her parents into politics?

“I don’t think so,” the secretary of state said. “I think she has really carved out her own life and her own privacy.”

“I think she respects and appreciates the political world but has no plans for being part of it at this time in her life.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Cheryl Ravelo (Clinton arrives at a Manila university for a televised town hall-style meeting; Clinton fields questions at the session)

DENVER - Hillary Clinton is set to address the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, but the real action started a little bit earlier.

Clinton aides brought out on stage several different pantsuits, each of them a different color, to see how the color of each reacted to the lighting and backdrop at the convention site.

Presumably this was to help Clinton of New York decide which color of her trademark garment would be best to wear for her big performance.

(ABC News reported that Glamour magazine has a spread on Clinton this month with photos of her wearing “a rainbow of pantsuits from fire-engine red to light lilac.” The Glamour headline reads: “Hillary, we loved your pantsuits!”)

When Clinton came strolling out to check out the scene on Tuesday, she was wearing a light linen pant suit that showed up well in the lighting.

Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, were all smiles as they tested the microphone at the podium from which they both will speak. It was clear they did not have to talk very loud to have her voice picked up and magnified throughout the pro basketball arena.

“Wow,” the former first lady said. “This is a really sensitive mic.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton (Clinton stands on stage during a walk-through in preparation for her speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention)

Campaigning for her mother, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton answers lots of questions from potential voters at campaign events but never from reporters.

But in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Clinton brushed aside a question from an individual in the crowd who asked for her take on her mother’s handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, WISH-TV reported.

“Wow, you’re the first person actually that’s ever asked me that question in the, I don’t know, 70 college campuses that I’ve now been to and I do not think that’s any of your business,” Clinton responded according to the station.

The crowd at the student union at Butler University applauded, WISH said. That was supposed to be the last question, but Clinton insisted on taking one more question, the report said.

When it was revealed in 1998 that President Bill Clinton had had an affair with Lewinsky, the news set off a protracted drama that led to his impeachment and a failed attempt to remove him from office.   

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- Photo Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi (Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton applauds as her daughter Chelsea takes the stage at a rally in Austin, Texas on March 3)