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Showing posts from February, 2016

The Gullible Manifesto (Just kidding!)

Twice in the last few weeks, people have done that thing to me.  Maybe this has happened to you?  They tell me something absolutely astonishing, so I’m like, "Really?"  Then they laugh, because I’ve fallen for it. And I cringe, because I've forgotten again. I've forgotten the tendency of reliable, fairly nice people to turn around and lie. Why do I always forget? Probably because the idea is so foreign and, hey, I'll say it, kind of repulsive. To me, it says more negative things about the person who's doing it, the suckee, than about you, the sucker.  As repulsive as a fart in polite company, this person has breached every conversational and societal norm for the sake of a not-very-good joke. A relative once brought his young kids to our seder and told them the spicy red horseradish on the table was strawberry jam.  I'm sure they never took jam from him again in their lives.  But is that really the point?  What's the message?  "Be careful ab