The Science of Telling Lies



 

This was the week that was for prevaricators.  Junior Seau's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL claiming it willfully hid the truth about the dangers of repeated blows to the head, like those sustained by NFL players.  Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o admitted he perpetuated lies about a fake girlfriend.  Rastafarian leaders claimed rap musician Snoop Lion (formerly and perhaps one day to be known again as Snoop Dogg) lied about becoming a Rasta in order to sell more records and make a movie.  The White House and singer Beyonce's handlers were pressed for details about why she faked singing The National Anthem at President Obama's inauguration by lip-singing, and avoided the subject.  Lance Armstrong admitted to doping during cycling races and lying about it.  And recently unveiled church records all but confirm Roman Catholic retired archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahony lied to cover for pedophilic priests.

Some fibbers uncovered in the media plead for you to understand the situational pressure upon them.  Still, having lied you have to keep lying or risk exposing the deception.  As Judge Judy often puts it when admonishing the litigants before her, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said."

How to spot a lie is an interesting study.  A lot of retired cops run seminars across the country teaching newer cops, business personnel and prosecutors to catch crooks in their imaginative stories.  I took one of these classes for training years ago and look for the tell-tale signs whenever this week's Bernie Madoff or Kevin Trudeau are talking.  Here's a representation of what the pros say to watch for:

And here's a more comprehensive newspaper article. 

http://www.thepalmbeachtimes.com/Pages/HowToSpotALiar.php

You were saying, Mr. Sandusky?

The Greatest Speeches in History

Ask any actor, writer, singer or other artist and they'll tell you they owe their talent and success to a role model.  Public speaking is no different.  If you want to become an accomplished orator you should study the great ones.

This Monday is the day this year we honor the birth and legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luthur King Jr.   His  passionate "I Have a Dream" speech is at the top of the list ranking 100 historic speeches at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html. 

Thanks to audio and video recordings, you can listen to and watch most of the speeches on this website as well as read the speech transcripts.  The collection includes other addresses by Dr. King, and the famous speeches of American presidents like Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, whose address the day the spaceshuttle Challenger exploded makes the list at #8.   His somber and avuncular reassurance to the nation and particularly to schoolchildren who may have seen the horror on live TV is a great example of how the right words and delivery create a powerful and memorable speech.  It's one of those times you remember where you were if you were old enough to remember.

If you want to jump to the notable parts of some famous speeches, there's another website with its own list of 35 with photos and the excerpts.  http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/01/the-35-greatest-speeches-in-history/

My leap into public speaking was inspired not by a statesman but a comedian.  By ninth grade, I had pretty much worn out my parents's copy of the record album 'Inside Shelly Berman' (which won the Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Recording in 1960) and I recited the monologues at summer camp and elementary school talent shows.   So began a lifelong appreciation of comedy and the spoken word.  I admire the way the greats from Jack Benny, George Carlin and  Bill Cosby to Bill Maher, Brian Regan and Stephen Colbert use humor to express their views and hold audiences's attention.

Public speaking entertains and informs and is a vital part of American history.  For every important event there seems to be a great speech that created or commemorated it.  Even as our country was getting started, the founding fathers recognized how important the principle is when they wrote the Constitution and placed free speech near the top as part of the First Amendment.  Born from that guaranteed right, the historic speeches are here preserved forever.

'The Bachelor' Drinking Game



Monday saw the premiere of the 17th and latest season of 'The Bachelor' on ABC.  If the premise is unfamiliar to you, it's a dating reality show in which a single bachelor chooses a potential wife from a pool of romantic interests.  Conflicts, hostilities, tears and joy arise from the elimination-style competition and some twists the producers throw in.  The show's immensely popular; it's been running for ten years and consistently ascends near the top of the Nielsen ratings.  It also has a large budget for roses.

When the show airs between 8:00 - 9:00 p.m., I'm usually watching The 'Daily Show with Jon Stewart' and 'The Colbert Report'.  But a couple of years ago, my girlfriend convinced me to watch the last three episodes of season 15, the one with returning bachelor Brad Womack and his future ex-fiancee Emily Maynard.  Beautiful people.  Beautiful shots in beautiful places where you'd expect people to fall in love like Catalina Island, Las Vegas and Costa Rica.  And fall in love they did, insistantly saying so in flat vocal inflections people naturally use in romantic situations like when getting an estimate from a mechanic or testifying in court.

Then I noticed the word "scared".  The contestants said it a lot to each other and in comments in private interviews.  One woman was scared of Brad's intentions, another scared to be alone with him, a third one scared to be vulnerable, and yet another scared if this was love or merely infatuation.  Brad was scared to meet one lady's family, scared to be a potential stepfather, and scared of leading anyone on.  Any of them could have meant they were excited, ebullient, elated, empathetic, hopeful,  hesitant,  nervous, optimistic, pessimistic, doubtful, thrilled or uncertain; but back in junior high, you know, "scared" about covered it all.  It gave me an idea.  I grabbed a Blue Moon and bottle of Chivas from the kitchen and we turned the word into a drinking game.  Each time someone on the show used the s-word we knocked one back.  (Kudos to the contestant who said "frightened" but it is a synonym for "scared" and commanded we drink.)  By the end of the show, we were scared of driving anywhere.

I checked parts of Monday's two-hour season premiere online.  It's "game on" in the second hour and presumably the rest of the season.  Try it for yourself.  You may find it makes the show so good it's scary.

Judging a Movie by its Preview

I don't go to the movies as much as I used to.   For every "Skyfall" or "Django Unchained" it seems there are twice as many movies to skip; remakes like "Total Recall", sequels like "Piranah 3-DD", sci-fi like "John Carter", failed blockbusters, tepid comedies, superhero superbombs, and... you get the picture.  Certainly my late-baby boomer demographic accounts for another reason I'm spending less at the box office.

Whether a movie makes my bucket list or blacklist is determined when I see the preview in the theatre or on TV.  Previews are supposed to make you want to see the film by featuring some of the best moments from the movie, so the inclusion of certain scenes are a dealbreaker for me. If a preview contains any of these three insipid ideas, it's a sure bet the movie is a dud.

1. Any preview in which a guy is hit in the balls.  Recent example: 'Parental Guidance' with Billy Crystal.  Granted the scene may be funny, but if the preview includes a guy taking it in the sack, you'll find nothing more inspired in the movie than a guy taking it in the sack.  And the collective "ohh!" of the audience during the preview won't have the same punch when you see it again.

2. Any preview in which a character asks something like "Who are you?", "What's going on here?", "What is this place?" or "Where are we?"  Sure, the pithy remark builds suspense, but over what?   Probably no one involved in making the movie was sure.  A scene that might make me want to see the film is one that answers that dumb question.  'Parker' has sealed its fate with the clip "Who the hell are you?".  In three months you'll have to google the name to remember what the film was about.

3. Any preview in which a man wears women's clothes and the film doesn't include Robin Williams.  The gag was well done in "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "The Birdcage", two Robin Williams movies that made good points about gender roles and played them for laughs.  But as a story twist to run from the cops or blend in with a group of women, it's lame.  If that's one of the best scenes, it won't work even if the guy is hit in the balls.

Thumbs down from me.

TSP Special Edition: New Years 2013 Around the World

I love the annual montage of fireworks celebrating New Years around the world.  See if you can get through the 2013 displays without mouthing the word "wow".