three truths and a lie
There are all kinds of parties that you can attend and most of us have experienced a good cross section of them in our lifetime. There are the parties of our youth that took place in school and were attended only by the other kids in our classroom. There were the birthday parties that we attended as children that were decorated in a theme, always had a cake, some cheap games and if you weren't invited, it said something about your social position in your school. And there were the parties that our parents threw, that involved going to bed early and then sneaking back out to steal unattended glasses of booze. These were all great parties... When you're 8.
You get older and the parties start to splinter off into various different types of musical social standards. The cowboy set found themselves drinking beer in the back of trucks, listening to loud music, occasionally smoking some dope, fighting with whomever and possibly getting laid. The same was true of the rock set, but the music had a different beat and the hair was longer. Rap parties were inside, there was always sex, always a fight, rarely anyone drunk and were always busted in the first three hours. Punks found Legion halls, paid five bucks, danced, got in fights, then got arrested. The other music scene didn't have parties, they just walked around and got beat up by the rest of the other musical genres. I guess ravers didn't. Ravers took enormous amounts of drugs, danced, shared hepatitis, and redefined the Dr. Seuss look.
Again, we got older and the party scene changed.
Some of us found ourselves staying with the old methods, Find a remote field or lake and then get loud, ridiculous and possibly arrested. But somehow, some of us found our way indoors, into nice dining rooms, nice houses, freshly cleaned and organized surroundings. The music is softer and usually more socially conscience. The clothes are modest. The conversation is deep. The food is experimental. There is rarely a fight or fucking and the night almost always ends with a game.
Actually the whole night is a game and the object of the game is to determine who is the smartest person in the room. Every aspect of the party is designed to test your knowledge - Can you identify the food? Can you identify the music? Can you identify the wine? Can you keep up your end of the conversation? It's not enough to have heard to the food being served, you have to know where to get the best version of it in... Buenos Aires. It's not enough to be able to identify the wine, you have to know who made the wine, where they learned how to make it, the secret recipe of that wine and why it's better than the ones you can get in Prague. The whole night you either feel like a genius or an idiot and you have to feel that way in front of strangers. It's very relaxing.
If you're able to keep up with all of this, then you're doing well. The meal is over and the "party" has moved to the living room and things seem like they might be winding down, UNTIL - someone suggests a game of sudden death overtime. To settle once and for all, who is the king of the intellectual hill. And what game do the intellectual elite prefer to play to determine the mental Alpha male (or femala) - pictionary, scattagories, trivial pursuit, scene it, or various mind games that someone remembered from psyche 402. The brilliant minds of our world... At play in the field of Milton Bradley.
The mind game that stands out for me is called, "three truths and a lie". It's a game where everyone in the room writes down four things about themselves - three things are true, one is a lie, and everyone else in the room has to figure out which is which. What the game is designed to do is to showcase the ego, the fear and the capacity for deception that each player has, but that's not what people get from the game. Everyone plays the game differently and the outcome of the game is always the same - that girl is crying, that man is pissed off, that woman is turned on and that man is pretty sure that no one will ever talk to him again.
And that's why I love it.
Men play this way: The three truths that they share are usually boasts. Rarely will they reveal a weakness or admit to having done something wrong. The lie is usually obvious and more colorful than their personality. In order for the game to be played, you cannot reveal which is which until everyone has been able to discuss it at length. If you are male with a frail ego, this discussion part of the game can be a soul crushing event.
Women play this way: The three truths and the lie are always sexually oriented. Rarely does a woman reveal any information about themselves that can't be defended by saying, "I was drunk", "I was young", "I was dating a guy who was into that", or "Hey, you never know until you try." Women with a bit of wine, feel free to let out of their "ocean of secrets" tidbits of their youth BEFORE they were with their present stud. Sadly, you can see on his face that she was much more wild than he and his manhood is looking pretty sad. She's laughing, blushing and apparently enjoying the memories and he's sitting there, feeling like a pretty lousy lay.
The game is always a disaster, but it adds something to the dullness of the evening. I think it's very entertaining to watch the delicate fabric of a stiff dinner party get ripped to shreds by announcements of wives sleeping with black men or of husbands sleeping with black men. I love it. I love the game because it never just stays at three truths. OH NO! She reveals a daisy, so he one ups her. So she does the same and a pit of shame dug with the honesty shovel, starts getting deeper and deeper and deeper.... A nice, boring dinner party becomes the social event of the year with just a few nasty bits of trivia. ( I am always the one who recommends that we play this game... I know, I know.. I'm an evil shit, but I can't help it. You know how boring these dinner parties can be. Do you want me to have a good time or not?)
There was a time when a party was a fun, exciting or relaxing place to spend some time with strangers or friends. Sadly, it's hard for me to find a field party at my age. If I show up now, I look like a cop and there is nothing like being stared at in a negative way at a field party. It's sad. I wish I could go back. It's not because I want to get drunk, listen to loud music or get in a fight, I just want to attend a party where there are no games. No one at a field party wants to test their trivia knowledge and no one there is good at determining common sayings from pressure driven drawings. They all just want to get drunk and enjoy the air. And screw some sophmore up against a tree.
My three truths and a lie that I usually go with...
1. I was a child genius
2. I was a prostitute
3. I was in 34 adult films
4. I spent an afternoon with Jimmy Stewart in his house
You get older and the parties start to splinter off into various different types of musical social standards. The cowboy set found themselves drinking beer in the back of trucks, listening to loud music, occasionally smoking some dope, fighting with whomever and possibly getting laid. The same was true of the rock set, but the music had a different beat and the hair was longer. Rap parties were inside, there was always sex, always a fight, rarely anyone drunk and were always busted in the first three hours. Punks found Legion halls, paid five bucks, danced, got in fights, then got arrested. The other music scene didn't have parties, they just walked around and got beat up by the rest of the other musical genres. I guess ravers didn't. Ravers took enormous amounts of drugs, danced, shared hepatitis, and redefined the Dr. Seuss look.
Again, we got older and the party scene changed.
Some of us found ourselves staying with the old methods, Find a remote field or lake and then get loud, ridiculous and possibly arrested. But somehow, some of us found our way indoors, into nice dining rooms, nice houses, freshly cleaned and organized surroundings. The music is softer and usually more socially conscience. The clothes are modest. The conversation is deep. The food is experimental. There is rarely a fight or fucking and the night almost always ends with a game.
Actually the whole night is a game and the object of the game is to determine who is the smartest person in the room. Every aspect of the party is designed to test your knowledge - Can you identify the food? Can you identify the music? Can you identify the wine? Can you keep up your end of the conversation? It's not enough to have heard to the food being served, you have to know where to get the best version of it in... Buenos Aires. It's not enough to be able to identify the wine, you have to know who made the wine, where they learned how to make it, the secret recipe of that wine and why it's better than the ones you can get in Prague. The whole night you either feel like a genius or an idiot and you have to feel that way in front of strangers. It's very relaxing.
If you're able to keep up with all of this, then you're doing well. The meal is over and the "party" has moved to the living room and things seem like they might be winding down, UNTIL - someone suggests a game of sudden death overtime. To settle once and for all, who is the king of the intellectual hill. And what game do the intellectual elite prefer to play to determine the mental Alpha male (or femala) - pictionary, scattagories, trivial pursuit, scene it, or various mind games that someone remembered from psyche 402. The brilliant minds of our world... At play in the field of Milton Bradley.
The mind game that stands out for me is called, "three truths and a lie". It's a game where everyone in the room writes down four things about themselves - three things are true, one is a lie, and everyone else in the room has to figure out which is which. What the game is designed to do is to showcase the ego, the fear and the capacity for deception that each player has, but that's not what people get from the game. Everyone plays the game differently and the outcome of the game is always the same - that girl is crying, that man is pissed off, that woman is turned on and that man is pretty sure that no one will ever talk to him again.
And that's why I love it.
Men play this way: The three truths that they share are usually boasts. Rarely will they reveal a weakness or admit to having done something wrong. The lie is usually obvious and more colorful than their personality. In order for the game to be played, you cannot reveal which is which until everyone has been able to discuss it at length. If you are male with a frail ego, this discussion part of the game can be a soul crushing event.
Women play this way: The three truths and the lie are always sexually oriented. Rarely does a woman reveal any information about themselves that can't be defended by saying, "I was drunk", "I was young", "I was dating a guy who was into that", or "Hey, you never know until you try." Women with a bit of wine, feel free to let out of their "ocean of secrets" tidbits of their youth BEFORE they were with their present stud. Sadly, you can see on his face that she was much more wild than he and his manhood is looking pretty sad. She's laughing, blushing and apparently enjoying the memories and he's sitting there, feeling like a pretty lousy lay.
The game is always a disaster, but it adds something to the dullness of the evening. I think it's very entertaining to watch the delicate fabric of a stiff dinner party get ripped to shreds by announcements of wives sleeping with black men or of husbands sleeping with black men. I love it. I love the game because it never just stays at three truths. OH NO! She reveals a daisy, so he one ups her. So she does the same and a pit of shame dug with the honesty shovel, starts getting deeper and deeper and deeper.... A nice, boring dinner party becomes the social event of the year with just a few nasty bits of trivia. ( I am always the one who recommends that we play this game... I know, I know.. I'm an evil shit, but I can't help it. You know how boring these dinner parties can be. Do you want me to have a good time or not?)
There was a time when a party was a fun, exciting or relaxing place to spend some time with strangers or friends. Sadly, it's hard for me to find a field party at my age. If I show up now, I look like a cop and there is nothing like being stared at in a negative way at a field party. It's sad. I wish I could go back. It's not because I want to get drunk, listen to loud music or get in a fight, I just want to attend a party where there are no games. No one at a field party wants to test their trivia knowledge and no one there is good at determining common sayings from pressure driven drawings. They all just want to get drunk and enjoy the air. And screw some sophmore up against a tree.
My three truths and a lie that I usually go with...
1. I was a child genius
2. I was a prostitute
3. I was in 34 adult films
4. I spent an afternoon with Jimmy Stewart in his house
posted by Daniel Loomis | 4:40 PM
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