HALF A LIE

Recently, at a gathering, one of my friends, a movie aficionado, and I were discussing movies and she mentioned that she'd just watched Funny Girl for the umpteenth time and there was an actress whose name she couldn't remember. When she told about the character I said, "Anne Francis" and we spoke of other roles we'd seen Francis play. My friend then said how much Barbra had changed over the years and I remarked, "Well, after all, she'll be 76 in April, but she still looks pretty damned good!" [YES, I do know Barbra's birthday!]

A woman whom I will admit, I do not like, said, "Well, with all those face lifts and Botox, she should!" I pounced and said, "Were you there when she supposedly had it done?" She looked stunned at being confronted, but I'll give the woman credit because she responded with, "That's why she can't sing any more; she can't move her mouth!"  Stifling an urge to laugh because it was funny, I literally screamed, "CAN'T sing? When's the last time you heard her sing? I just so happen to have her Concert CD in my car right now and she sounds great!" The woman countered with, "They say so." Of course I didn't give her the opportunity to continue. I said, "A wise man once said, "They say so is half a lie." but you just told a whole lie because YOU weren't there and cannot say anything about her!" Fortunately, the woman left in a huff. If she had just said that she didn't like Barbra then it would not have bothered me, but she had to couch her dislike with ignorance.

I do confront people by saying, "Were you there?"; "Did you see it yourself?"; "How do you know?"; "I don't believe it.", and "I seriously doubt that.", among other charming retorts. Of course I know this is an irritant but I dislike it when people use gross generalizations, stunning stereotypes, blatant bigotry, and malicious maligning (oh, how I love the alliteration of that last sentence) and try to pass them off as facts.

Why do I care? Hell if I know!