Are you a good bluffer? Do you find that you can convince someone of things rather effortlessly? Do you get a thrill in making someone believe "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

Answers

Refer back to the Bill Pullman Vs Pamie thread for my glaringly obvious answer to this one.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

depending upon who it is, I can be a pretty good bluffer. My dad - it's all in the tone and the content. My mom, no way in hell. brother and sister - who are older - oh yeah.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

I'm terrible about fooling people into things, but I get sharp, ferocious pangs of guilt and I usually admit my ruse before it goes on too long.

I had a very gullible co-worker who would believe almost anything, including the time that we mocked up an email from a former supervisor who had left on a three month trip to Central America. The email was supposedly sent from an "Internet Ready" Mexican jail, and spanned two pages of highly descriptive text about jail activities and how his trip had been before he got arrested for public drunkenness.

I couldn't even be in the same room with my co worker while he was reading it, but when I came back he actually asked me if it was all true, if we were actually planning on sending the $500 the guy needed to get out of jail.

Even when we told him it was a hoax he wasn't quite sure we'd come clean with him.

I miss those days of gullibility.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

I'm not a great bluffer, but I'm a fantastic bluffer conspirator.

My friend Andrea can convince almost anyone of almost anything. She's a lawyer by day, and directs theater by night, so people are prone to taking her seriously. She gives the most fantastic facts about things as if they're truth, and will always let at least one other person in on the joke by a quick look.

I'm usually the one to catch "the look," so when the person she's bluffing snorts and says, "Yeah, right!" I'll pipe up with a vague sort of backup. (It usually involves seeing/hearing about it on either the Discovery Channel or Entertainment Weekly.)

I can't make up a decent bluff to save my life, but I'm really quick at jumping into the game. I think that's why I did so well at improv.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

Yeah, I'm a good bluffer. Really. I make my people believe lot of stuff.

But, I wanted to say something else. I live close to Dalmatia, and trust me, the dog is DalmatiAn, not DalmatiOn.

Now, how nerdy is this?

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

I'm pretty darned good at bluffing, I've found out.

I have a history of telling the truth and giving straight answers all the time. So when I'm feeling playful, I might mess around with even a longtime friend's head. Why not? People do it to me all the time. They hear that I'm from Iowa, so they think, "Automatic naive hick."

Too bad they believe in stereotypes. I'm quite the opposite. Not too many things I'm naive about but hey, that's not your business. :o)

Anyway, several years ago, I had this one cute girl totally convinced that my cousin Tim and I were not in fact from Iowa, but that we were Bill and Ted from California. She even believed me when I said our Iowa driver's licences were faked. :o) I told her the truth after 15 minutes but my cousin and I couldn't stop smirking at her for the rest of the night.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

I seem to be an everyman. By that I mean that I look like the national average. The result is that everyone thinks that I look like someone they know. There are dozens of people across the country who have passed for my siblings. Some folks are still none the wiser. Once I actually sat a bar for an hour drinking free beer because the bartender thought I was his neighbor. I finally felt bad enough to tell the truth and threw in a nice tip.

On the other hand, I'm totally gullible. Some friends once convinced me that a girl I had dated used to be a man. I still get teased about that one.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1999

Yes, I'm a very good bluffer.

(see?)

-- Anonymous, September 01, 1999

I *used* to be a good bluffer, when my younger sisters (now 32 and 27) were little. I could convince them I was dead ("Ma, she's not BREATHING!!!") I convinced the older one that I had murdered several townspeople and that they were buried all over town ("Yup, that lump out in left field *is* Grandpa Jones.") The younger one was more gullible. She believed SlurryStores (big silos for liquified cow manure) were swimming pools, that there was a swamp monster on the loose in the woods, and several other things.

For awhile I had my son convinced that I was a vampire, but I foundit less fun when I realized he didn't really care.

-- Anonymous, September 01, 1999

Having just bought our first house, my husband and I have suddenly become plant people. Any bush or flower that we see for sale, we feel we just have to stick it in the dirt in our back yard. We are having a hard time remembering which plant is which, though, and the complicated names don't help. Today I convinced my husband on the phone that we should plant a whole patch of Clamidia (I don't know how to spell it, but it's that sexually transmitted disease). He asked me what color it was and I said, probably red. I know he always talks to people at work about yards and stuff, so I am anxious to hear everyone's advice on the best way to get Clamidia to bloom. It's only fair. He once convinced me that a Dooley was a giant turd, so when my coworker started bragging about his one-ton Dooley, I cracked up. When I explained why it was so funny, suddenly the joke was on me, and I have been seeking revenge ever since.

-- Anonymous, September 01, 1999