Skip to main content

The Art of Exaggeration

Always. Never. Ever. Forever. None. All. Exaggerators are much like true/false questions on exams. If we see any of the before-mentioned words, such as never, then the answer is likely false, just as the person's story is.

Know anyone like this? Does it really aid the story to exaggerate to a point of unbelievability? Sometimes it's ridiculous.

As a person is speaking to me, they'll state something like, "Man, that test took forever!"

At this point, I carefully gaze about what they're doing, to check and see if they're still working on the exam, because if what they said is true, they wouldn't be finished with it yet.

Sometimes, it seems that certain people have about as little concept of time as dogs. If I walk outside to get the mail and only a minute has lapsed between the time I left the house and walked back in, the dogs will greet me like it had been a month, because it seemed like "forever" to them. Some people seem to be similar to dogs in this area.

Numbers seem to enter the equation (story) on many occasions. Many believe that as the large numbers used in the story increase, so too will the impact of the story.

"I told her like a million times that I didn't want to go eat at Runza, but still, she insisted."

I highly doubt that occurred. Can you imagine someone actually repeating a phrase one million consecutive times? Whew. That's cause for going nuts. Heck, when a person repeats themselves more than three times, that's usually cause for a, "Shut up! I can hear you! I get the point! Now, stop saying that!" Can you imagine how someone would react to a person repeating a phrase 1,000,000 times? Loony bin, here we come!

It's even funnier when the same person switches quantities dealing with the same story. One minute, it's "I told her like a million times that I didn't want to go eat at Runza, but still she insisted."

But, then, another friend sits down at the table and gets to hear the story from the beginning. "Dude, I told her like a thousand times that I didn't want to go eat at Runza, but still, she insisted."

I might then chime in and say, "I thought you said it was a million times."

He'll respond with something like, "Whatever. Whatever it was, it was a ton!"

It's not like I can tell a story about the final score of a football game being 28-24 one minute and then alter it to 17-10 the next. The word "always" is often times amusing as well.

"We've always been like this, she and I. We've always loved each other."

Again, I have to ponder and ask myself, "Okay, how long have they known one another? A year? So, one out of twenty-five years? How long have humans existed? Hmmm, always might be stretching it, just a tad."

I don't know that there is an art of exaggeration. That may have been sarcastic on my part. Go figure, right? The truth is that exaggeration is "always" a necessary tool when conversing with another, especially if the two individuals are politicians, it "never" gets to the point where it's so unbelievable one could easily laugh and it shall "forever" be used as a boost to our egos. Right guys?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

A closer look at the Scramble With Friends power-ups

I am unashamed to admit that I'm a nerd. My idea of a good time is playing a word game like Boggle or Scrabble. Thankfully, I (and many others) can play such games via Facebook and/or my (our) cell phone(s). While it seems that cheating has become more commonplace in these games (Words With Friends in particular) than San Diego has had nice weather, I've yet to give in to that craze. One element present with the game Scramble With Friends (Boggle) not present in Words With Friends (Scrabble) are legal boosts called "power-ups," which cost a number of tokens from the 15 available. I've now tried all five power-ups, including the latest one which costs money. So, in case anyone's curious about playing the game or giving these power-ups a gander, here's a rundown of them all: Freeze - I think this is probably my favorite of all the power-ups. With the freeze, time stands still for a matter of seconds, which allows you more time to find words and improve...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...