Saturday, July 07, 2007

Lie Detector

I was recently tagged by Pandave over at Odi Et Amo. The rules are as follows:

  • Post the rules before beginning
  • List eight random facts/habits about yourself and post to your blog
  • At the end of the post, choose eight people to tag and list their names
  • Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog

Now, because I am sooooo good at following rules, I’ve decided to throw in a little twist to make this a little more interactive. One of the things I list is going to be false. Your job is to detect the lie. These are more stories / experiences rather than facts / habits. Oh, well. Feel free to ask me any questions about any of the stories. Good luck.

  1. I once convinced a few Arab men to put on some traditional Lebanese music, pull out some scarves, and show me how the women in their country danced. At first they were a little apprehensive, but eventually they all got really into it and I think actually enjoyed themselves. I, of course, was highly entertained.
  2. Once while taking a shortcut along train tracks, a train came by. I moved to the side and waved at the conductors and then pretended to hitchhike. Much to my surprise, the train stopped and the drivers asked me where I was going. I hopped aboard and was taken to my destination. The traffic waiting on either side of the tracks was somewhat stunned when the train stopped (not a stop) and I climbed out. (As a side note, there are very few passenger trains in Canada and not a lot of stops)
  3. A number of years ago at a conference down in Vancouver, I was facilitating a workshop called “Survival Activities to Add to Your Bag of Tricks.” When I arrived at where I was to present, I noticed that there was a typo in the workshop title. It now read: “Cervical Activities to Add to Your Bag of Tricks.” Of course it provided for a great opener. The room was packed and I had to question why there were so many men in the audience. I figure that either they thought they were at a medical conference or they simply stopped in to see the demo.
  4. When I lived in Quebec City, I used to take a short cut beside a convent to get to the university. One day, right in front of the convent, I was flashed (I always found that juxtaposition quite ironic). I laughed at the guy and continued on.
  5. I used to travel a fair amount for work. One day I was on one of those aqua velvet flights to Toronto. You know, those first flights out in the morning filled with men in suits and the permeating smell of after shave. Well, a nice suit sat down beside me and he smelled goooooood. I was thinking that the fellow I was with at the time could use a new cologne. So I turned to this guy and innocently asked him what he was wearing. He gave me a cheeky smile and said, “Actually, I’m going commando.” Me, never having seen that Seinfeld episode quipped back, “That’s great, cause I sure would like to get me some of that.” I’ll leave it to you to imagine the expression on his face. (And he thought he was shocking me!)
  6. In Banff, there is a great restaurant that does a wicked fondue. While there, there was a couple at the table next to us, obviously foreigners. The person who I was with and I were having a friendly debate trying to guess what language this other couple was speaking. I said Swedish, my friend thought perhaps some Slavic language. Eventually we asked them (it was Swedish) and after a bit of discussion back and forth, we invited them to join us for a drink. After a fabulous dinner and much merry making, we asked for the bill only to be told that another customer had asked to pick up our tab and had paid our entire bill. This person was no longer there so I couldn’t even thank him and to this day I have no idea who it was.
  7. While traveling in the mid-west, I was either chasing a tornado or it was chasing me. The air became very calm and all bird chirping etc, eerily ceased. Then there was a huge siren. I had just hopped into my rental car and put the key in the ignition seconds before the alarm. Having never been exposed to such things, I initially thought that I must have triggered an alarm on the car. After pressing all the buttons and searching high and low to no avail, I pulled the key out but the alarm continued. So I hopped out of my car and walked around it wondering why the alarm was much louder outside the car. Eventually it dawned on me that “oh, this is a tornado warning.” The siren stopped soon thereafter and I started on my merry way. By this time evening was starting to fall. The rains started, cars were pulling under overpasses and stopping. I continued on, but decided it would be prudent to turn on radio. I was heading straight for the tornado. I eventually got turned around and went back until I found a decent hotel…almost at my starting point. That was enough of an adrenaline fix for me for quite awhile.
  8. My biggest vice is dark chocolate. Not the cheap stuff…good quality, usually Swiss, German or Belgium. But I recently discovered another company that does an amazing bar with dark organic chocolate and dried cherries. Mmmm….
Now, if the following would be so kind to play along, consider yourself tagged:
The Fool over at Relationalisms
Fede over at Strayed, Uncorrelated Thoughts
Jillie at Nurse Scratched
Dawn over at Colours of Dawn
Sirdar over at Sirdar Inc
Chani at Thailand Gal
Tracy at Mom the Minx
JBelle at Notes from the 'Kan Ewa

If you've already done this meme, that's fine. Anyone else who wants to play along, let me know, the more the merrier.

33 comments:

Cheryl said...

Hee, hee - I almost died over you wanting to get some "Commando"!

I'm going to guess that number two (about the train) is the lie, although you can get up to some crazy things, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's true.

Sandi @the WhistleStop Cafe said...

You are to funny!
Thanks for sharing!

thailandchani said...

I am going to guess #1 as the lie. It's too hard to imagine any Turkish man, willing to act or dress like a woman.

This was really very interesting! And fun! Thanks for writing it.


Peace,

~Chani

The Fool said...

Hi Nomad. "Tag, you're it," eh? Okay, I'll play.

I'm going to bet that you have a bigger vice than dark chocolate...

:)

Dan said...

Number 8 is false. NO WAY a woman could like chocolate. That's just too weird.

BurdockBoy said...

Hello again!!!

My first guess was #2 for a lie.

Although a lot of them seem pretty crazy. Thanks for sharing.

Carla said...

Cheryl, Some crazy times, some crazy times.

Sandi, Most welcome. Are you not even going to hazard a guess on which statement is not true?

Carla said...

Chani, Most welcome. Good reasoning. In a bit I will let everyone know.

Fool, So glad you decided to play. I'll be waiting for your responses. I'm going to have to ponder my vices now.

Anonymous said...

I think #2 - but boy - you are good at this!!

Must admit - #5 - gave me a smile - I think I better not ask how the rest of the flight - went!!

Peter

Carla said...

Dan, You're the second one now...seems like guys just don't "get" chocolate. It does amazing things to serotonin levels

Burdock Boy, Good to see you around again! Are you all settled in now?

Steffi said...

That´s a funny game,Carla.I guess # 1 is the lie.

Anonymous said...

I think it is number 4. It is one of the most plausible ones and easiest to make up with it's lack of details. To me it actually has a different sound to it. I believe you lived there and did the short cut, I don't really believe the rest. I realize that is the opposite to what they say about lies being wrought with details, but this is written word and all your stories seem out there, so I am sticking to my answer.

I am not sure if I will do this. I have been tagged with meme's a couple times since I started blogging and have refused on the grounds that they are overwhelming, and scary like clowns. I like to read them though (unlike clowns, which I don't even like from a distance). Thanks for thinking of me though.

Carla said...

Peter, I'm convinced that we all have some good stories waiting to be told. If you feel like participating, I would love to hear yours.

Steffi, It's a great way to get to know people.

Carla said...

Dawn, I understand about the meme thing. They always make me a little nervous as well. That's why I changed the rules on this one a little bit. And I agree, clowns are a little freaky.

Anonymous said...

To me the obvious one is the train story that would be false. I love the airplane one.

I would say that the Vancouver conference story is the false one.

As for memes...I usually don't do memes. I'll think about this one as it doesn't ask a whole bunch of questions to answer. This is more of a thinking persons meme. Enjoyed your post!!

Annie Wicking said...

Sound interesting... But Mmm not too sure whether my leg is beginning to hurt just a little bit. :-)

Annie

Carla said...

Sirdar, Glad you enjoyed the post. This one is not too bad as you can really write about anything you want. A lot of other memes are too limiting.

Annie, I'm only pulling your leg on one of the stories...but not too hard.

SleekPelt said...

Very entertaining, Carla! I think the airplane story is false. Those just seem like unlikely opening lines for a couple of people who just met and are about to spend time sitting six inches away from each other with no possibility of exit until the plane lands. If it really went down like that, I'd love to hear about the rest of the flight!

jillie said...

I did my tag ;o)))

Fuser said...

OK, I'd say 1 or 3. Number 1 seems reasonable, but that's why I suspect it. Number 3 is fascinating, but how can you go to the wrong conference...?
Nice mix altogether.
to go commando is outstanding. I am tempted to say this the lie, but I like to think that it is true. I cannot wait for the final solution.
Happy after shave day tomorrow.

Carla said...

Sleekpelt, Glad you found it entertaining. You'll just have to wait a bit before finding out if there's any more to the story.

Jillie, Just checked it out, that's great. Thanks for playing along :-)

Carla said...

Fede, I mustn't have been clear. No one was at the wrong conference. I simply used the typo on the title to break the ice with the crowd suggesting that the males in the room coming to a workshop with such a title would only do so if they were doctors or thought there might be some sort of lewd demo. So being polite as I am, I initially suggested that they (wink, wink) were there for the (non-existent) medical conference.

Anonymous said...

Carla, no fair that you threw out all of the best ones at the beginning...those were ALL so good that I don't want any of it to be a lie! Not even the last bit about the chocolate and dried cherries, which I wouldn't have doubted anyway.

Can't you extend this list just a little bit more? ;-)

tkkerouac said...

Funny,
I think it might be number 2
and I would like to know about the organic chocolate cherries.

JBelle said...

I'm on it! tomorrow okay?

JBelle said...

I say number one. Do I think you could stop a train? yes. Do I think you can think on your feet and turn a typo around to your advantage? absolutely. Did you get flashed in front of the convent? right on! no other place like it. Is the term 'commando' not widely acculturated? Gee is the whole world not into everything American? no? really. Do I think you could inspire anybody to buy you dinner? See above. The part thast says 'absolutely'. Could you possibly misunderstand completely obvious things about the midwest? God, it's the midwest. Who can understand any of it??

But under no circumstances did you get those Arabs to go drag. You just didn't do it. :)

Carla said...

Rowena, Perhaps we'll have to play this game again sometime. Hmm...I'll have to see if I can come up with eight more.

Tracey, I'll get back to you on the name of that chocolate...just as soon as I go buy myself some more. It was delish.

Carla said...

JBelle, (smiling coyly)you truly doubt my ability to make Arab men dance for me? I must admit, very well thought out. You'll just have to wait a little longer to find out.

Pink said...

number 2! its number 2!

isn't it?

xx
pinks

pandave said...

this is certainly difficult... i am leaning towards number 2 even though it is totally believable. life is random like that.

every story though is so entertaining. as someone who has been flashed i believe that it can happen anywhere.

and of course as a true addict, the chocolate thing i TOTALLY get.

Carla said...

Pinks, I will let you know very, very soon.

Pandave, Yes, one can certainly be flashed almost anywhere and I'm surprised at just how often it seems to happen. Thanks for playing. I'll announce the answer soon.

lisa said...

Ver funny post! I believe the train story, as I've ridden on the Agawa Canyon train tour out of Sault Ste. Marie, and I think railroad guys would absolutely do that for you. I'm guessing #1 is the untruth...even if Turkish men would dress up and act like women, I doubt they'd do it FOR a woman. Regardless, you are quite a good yarn spinner!

Carla said...

Lisa, Thanks for dropping by...and reminding me that I better conclude this little game with the answers. Perhaps that'll be on tonight's agenda.