Pick The Lies - Volume Two - Results (and Delurking Day)

Before we get to the post, today is Delurking Day. That means if you always read but never comment (i.e. lurk), today is your day to come forth and make yourself known to me, your faithful host (i.e. delurk), and if you're already a regular commenter, today's just another day to comment. Last year, we saw 20 comments. I would love to get more than that this year. (Hey! Here's an idea: what if our unofficial goal is most comments ever? That would mean we have to get more than the day I introduced Buddy, which was 47. So let's make our goal 50 comments.) So, if you read, please comment today.

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Black & White Lies - Triptaka
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter the little contest I ran over the weekend. Apparently, I am getting really good at lying, since this time no one got all three lies, meaning that professional SciFi Dad contest winner Mr. Lady, with two correct, is our winner. Honourable mention goes to Renee, the only other person (including MTM, who only got one) who got two right.

Now, on to the truths and the lies:

1. When I was in my elementary school choir, the choir director told me to "just mouth the words" for our concert.

Status:TRUE
Sadly, this is 100% true. I was ten years old, and she wasn't even nice about it.

2. I ran for student council president in university on the platform of vowing to dissolve student council if elected because I felt it was elitist.

Status:FALSE
I often joked about this, but never actually went through with the campaign. Instead, I ran the school paper (even going toe to toe with the administration on some issues).

3. On a family vacation to Ottawa we took a tour of the embassies. There was a newly constructed one that our guide did not know, but I was able to identify by its flag.

Status:TRUE
I was nine years old. As the tour bus came upon the embassy, the guide fumbled, and apologized saying she didn't know what country this was. "It's Kenya," I yelled from the back of the bus. "Apparently, according to the young man in the back, this is the Kenyan embassy," she told the group.

4. During a fundraising dinner for a marching band I was in, each member of my family (eight of us) won a door prize. There were 20 in total, and over 200 guests.

Status:TRUE
I played in a marching band in high school. To make the dinner (tickets were not cheap) feel like less of a cash grab, they had door prizes. My mom, dad, two sisters, BIL, grandparents and myself all won.

5. In highschool I was voted most likely to find a cure for cancer.

Status:FALSE
That was one of my best friends in high school (who went on to do genetic research). I was voted most likely to split an atom with his bare hands.

6. When I started university, I could not operate a PC (or a Mac for that matter). I called 5¼" disks floppy disks and 3½" disks hard disks.

Status:TRUE
We never had a home computer growing up. I had used a Commodore 64 in elementary school, but that's it. All my high school papers were done on a typewriter. Seriously.

7. On one of my first dates with MTM, I made a huge scene at a restaurant, including standing up and slamming things.

Status:TRUE
It was my birthday. She wanted to pay, even though she was living at home and had no money. I refused. She insisted. I stood up, pulled out my most recent ATM statement, put it on the table and pointed to the balance. "I'm paying for dinner." She was too stunned to argue.

8. When I was eight, I slept with a stuffed animal: Zipper The Cat from The Get-Along Gang.

Status:TRUE
Yep. Not much more to add.

9. I once ran into a friend from high school at Reagan Airport in Washington during a layover on a business trip.

Status:FALSE
Never happened. I did have a couple of layovers at Reagan when flying to North Carolina though.

10. My mother once helped me hide a minor accident from my father, including arranging and paying for all the repairs while he was at work.

Status:TRUE
I was 17, and she didn't drive. She needed me to have a car (my parents let me drive the older one because I drove my mother everywhere), so she hid it from my dad.

11. When I was in university, if a fight broke out at a club, I used to step in between the two guys, put my hands on their chests, and say, "Next guy who throws a punch deals with me."

Status:TRUE
I had promised a friend to stop fighting. I decided if I wasn't allowed to fight, no one else would be either. Strangely, no one ever took a swing at me.

12. When I was five years old, I opened the door of a car that was going 100km/h (55mph) while not wearing a seatbelt.

Status:TRUE
It was 1979 (hence the no seatbelt). My father and I were driving to northern Quebec to visit my aunt. At a side of the road pee stop, I had filled my pail with rocks from the shoulder (for their driveway which was gravel, something completely unique to me). When my father noticed the pail of rocks in between my feet, he told me I shouldn't have done that. So I opened the car door to empty the pail. My father reached over and closed the door while swerving and yelling.

For those interested, here are a few statistics about the answers:

• the most believable lie was the Reagan Airport one (#9); only Mr. Lady got that one
• the most unbelievable truth was the one about breaking up fights (#11); almost 60% of you thought that was a lie
• the second most unbelievable truth was the one about the date with MTM (#7), which means more of you thought I was a pansy than an asshole
• seven of you got none right; eight of you got one right; two of you got two right

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I also have a review up of a new book called The No Cry Nap Solution.