I have found that my face will give away my true feelings no matter what. If I'm not careful, it will fall into a smirk or a horrified wince. I also know that my eyebrows will give away my "subtext" (and I'm not talking in a "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" way, I just have rather expressive eyebrows). And yet, I can't pull off Manson Lamps to save my life.

Are you able to fake a face? Does yours give you away?

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Answers

Oh yeah - I telegraph everything I'm thinking in my face, although I have to watch my hands as well. It's a nightmare.

Unfortunately my face after getting me into trouble then decides to own up and to blush, just to make sure the other person knows they caught me red handed. Sigh

Apparently I can do a death glare when necessary - grown men have run screaming - apparently if I'm really seriously annoyed my face goes red and I squint. My more intelligent boyfriends have figured out that it's a good time to start calming me down. The stupid ones die. Heh.

So how about that legacy nomination, feeling old yet?? (No honest I'm joking don't Manson Lamp me!)
Just Stopping By Caoimhe

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Oh my god. Blushing is the very bane of my existence. I blush if I'm panicky, angry, flustered, speechless, sad or if I have a crush on the person I'm talking to. It's made even worse by the fact that I'm usually deathly pale so there is no way I can hide it, short of wearing make-up an inch thick which I have no desire to do. Sigh.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

I've always been a horrendous liar because my face gives everything away. I can't even play practical jokes on people because they can just *tell*. Luckily I've always been a strong believer in honesty anyway...

A guy once said that I had seventy precisely defined squints or stares that each meant something different. Usually subtle variations on "you're an idiot." Like a micrometer's difference in squinting depending on just what type of idiot the person is.

Then of course there is my excited "look there are puppies over there" face.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

I've always been able to lie very well -- hehe, it's the actor in me, I guess. But you know what I can't do? I can't raise just one eyebrow. And it kills me, because I really, really wish I could.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Pop Quiz!

Dora blushes when she is:

(a) embarassed (b) lying (c) thinking dirty thoughts (d) all of the above

Ding, ding, ding! (d) is the correct answer. Very good.

Fill in the blank with adjectives describing Dora's blushing:

Fast, Furious, Flaming Red, Fucking Ridiculous.

A+!

words diminish

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Since I'm very reserved and subdued, I'm pretty good at expressive faces (or non-expressive as the case may be). The great thing is when some random tries to pick me up, and I can just give him a look that totally shrivels his balls and makes him talk to some other girl, across the room. In the NEXT room. Yeah.

I don't blush easily, but then almost nothing really embarrasses me. And I find it hard to lie to someone in person. The trick is, of course, to convince yourself of the lie before you tell it...

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

actually, I am a bit apathetic at times while my feelings are in storm. I can sit in class and look like I'm about to fall asleep while I'm thinking about EVERYTHING. so, really, there is nothing that gives away what's going on in this demented lil' head ;D. it's very good at times, but then again, when I do want to make sure people know what I'm feeling, I need to make it strong. for example, I saw some guy I liked today so instead of just smiling I had to put my hair in my mouth and gives that *wild* look and grin like a crazy grrl. :P

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Pamie, the best way to look crazy is to stare into the middle distance, and let your eyes go slightly out of focus. It's a good look for when your mother is asking you to wash the dishes.

I can't control my face. I apparently look pissed off the entire time - to the extent that I have to deliberately grin like a moron at times to avoid offending people. However, this pays big dividends when I'm slightly pissed off, because everybody thinks I'm really pissed off, and acts accordingly (by getting really worried that I'm about to lose it).

I do blush, and I have that awful pale skin that blotches at moments of stress or tension. I always come out of salary negotiations looking like I've got third-degree burns to the face and neck.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

If I even think about lying I blush. And it also happens to me when I talk to a man I'm attracted to. Does anyone know a way to control it? My face is going to fill with so much blood one day it's going to explode.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

A Problem of Opposites

When I'm spacing out and thinking of nothing in particular, apparently I look really concentrated. This was really good for me in school and probably was the sole factor in my reputation as a "good student".

On the other hand, if I'm thinking very hard about something or am put on the spot to answer somthing quickly, my face goes blank and I look absolutely clueless, leading people to beleive I either don't know the answer or am not very quick on the uptake.

This term "Manson Lamps" is really cool though, I never heard that one before. Is it from the sopranos, or have people heard it used other places before the show came on?

I have a Look of Death that I give cars who are trying to run me down on my bike when it's *me* that has the right of way. If I can get the drivers eye, it's really effective and they stop right in their tracks .

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Oh lordy.. I don't blush all over, but my ears go red. Really really red. My boyfriend thinks this is hilarious. It happens especially when I'm getting defensive. I can't hide my reactions very well in general. This is part of why I avoid open-mic poetry readings: if someone is bad, I'm so embarassed for them I can't look at them and I wince and shudder. I also have a habit of, when making presentations, catching the eye of one friend in the room and then desparately trying not to crack up, especially if the pressure's on.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

thankfully, i don't blush often... but my best friend has said i have tourette's of the face. all that internal dialog apparently lights up my face like an animated neon sign in times square. one of these days, it's really gonna get me in trouble. so far, it's only earned me the reputation of hard-ass at work, as my low tolerance level for stupidity (ny own, as well as others) runs rampant across my face as a really scary side show of freaky, scary expressions.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Tourrette's of the face.

I'm crying over that one. Too funny.

I blush and I hate it.

You can tell when I'm pissed off 'cause my eyebrows do that furrowing thing. I'm going to have one of those huge wrinkles across my forehead.

If I think someone is full of shit or whatever my left eybrow automatically raises. It's freaky.

I finally have the eye rolling thing under control for the most part.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Oh, the blushing.

my mother used to know how "bad" I was being on a date by how red my face would be when I got home. That and any sort of facial hair makes my cheeks all raw and inflamed from even the lightest contact.

I blush very easily, and my face turns quite red when I laugh, cough, or have any sort of physical activity. Apparently this is a genetic thing, and my great grandmother had the same thing. wonderful.

It's a dead giveaway when I'm excited or trying not to laugh.

oh, and that whole coming-home-late-trying-not-to-get-busted thing. Right. I ran out of gas, and that's why my neck and face is covered in red horny blotches.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

I have been told in the past that I wear my heart on my sleeve. And then, I got to my small private high school and my mom is the only math teacher there, so I have to have her as a teacher.

She always knew exactly what I was thinking. We'd drive home and she'd be like, so, Elisabeth, class was pretty boring today, huh? And I'd be like...shit, man, how'd you know? Dang!

My pale Irish countenace and ability to easily cry always always give me away.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

I think my funniest face story is that at different times, both my father and my sister told me almost exactly the same thing about my temper when I was a kid: "You would take everything pretty easily; nothing seemed to bother you. But then there were times you'd get this look on your face... and everybody would clear the room." So I guess I had quite the long fuse attached to a huge keg o' dynamite.

Nowadays, I prefer the "oh-really" raised left eyebrow effect. That and the, "You can't really be that stupid, so I'm waiting for the punchline" blank stare. I inherited the eyebrow from my grandmother, and used it on my grandfather as early as the baby carriage. The blank stare I stole from my brother. I bless them both for their contributions.

I do blush, but only when I'm trying to maintain my rather fleeting sense of decorum. I don't do it enough to prevent being quite good at bluffing my way through a quick practical joke (I'm never mean enough to let someone think "gullible" isn't in the dictionary for very long... and yes, people still fall for that one).

Studying American Sign Language is almost as good as acting to teach you fast how to use your face; expression is part of the grammatical structure of the language. Can't begin to tell you how many times I heard deaf people complain that hearing people have no facial expression.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

I have an excellent poker face. Experienced a "punched-in-the-gut" moment on the weekend and later, others told me they had no idea that the news even upset me. I'm always the calming factor in a crisis, because my face and voice never betray the yelling in my head, "I can't f***ing believe this shit is happening!"

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

If you ever need help conveying an emotion, please go to this site:

www.emotioneric.com

All the help you would ever need is there.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2000

alli - the eye roll is too true. it does take a while to get that under control. and still, sonia will say - 'hey, don't roll your eyes at me about that!'.

twq, i like the blank stare concept. gotta try to work that one into the repertoire...

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2000

I'd like to think I can control my face pretty well, but only when I concentrate. It's like the Batman villain, Clayface. If I try, I can pull most things off; but if I'm more interested in what's going on around me or if my emotions get the better of me, I can't stop my face. Anyone else ever realize that they are mirroring the expressions from a movie or TV show?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000