Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:17:59 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gerald & Laura Tarbell Subject: Re: Pedal Feeding... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit It has long been said that the best way to disguise a lie (or fib if your prefer) is to be sure to include a lot of detail. Nobody will question it if you include things like the exact date, time, what you were wearing, etc. Steve, I believe the story in the swamp because of the Skoal cap. I once tried to convince an unwary fisherman that the brook trout was extinct by giving him the exact date, stream, location and who caught the last one down to the bait he used. It almost worked. Jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Huy" To: Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 9:31 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Pedal Feeding... > This reminds me of a game I play with my wife. I've been fascinated with animals as long as I can remember. Therefore I've accumulated a fair bit of trivial knowledge about many obscure species, or the obscure habits of common critters. > > My wife, however, knows very little about even the most common animals. For the longest time she viewed my commentary on such things as pangolins, narwhals and spiny echidnas with suspicion. There's nothing better than catching her watching Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel, in absolute disbelief as they tell the life history of something she was sure I made up. > > Just when she starts to trust me I throw out a carefully constructed imaginary creature to test her. Each of these creatures seems as though its real, but has some trait that cannot be possible and I wait to see if she catches on before I tell the truth - or burst out laughing. > > Had I been able to share my mind's image of a bittern "pedal feeding" in a southern swamp while wearing an oil stained "Skoal" cap and smoking I'm sure it would have been obvious. But I omitted those details. > > Steve > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================