Can honest people not be swindled, manipulated, or cajoled? I mean, I think they sure can. Just because something looks too good to be true doesn't mean you actually realised it...and if you're a good con man, it shouldn't look too good to be true, or the smart money won't fall for it.

Smart money won't fall for it. Let me put it to you in gambling terms. Back when Phil made his living separating people from their money by playing backgammon, he was always on the look out for a Pidgeon, or as he called it, a "Big Pidge."

Now the defining characteristic of a Big Pidge is they're not as good as they think they are. So you string them along and drop a few games and then you soak them.

The key is the word "Confidence" - which relates to gaining somebody's confidence, but also an over-inflated sense of your own ability.

A Con Man is a Confidence Man. They gain your confidence, but they also exploit your inflated sense of confidence. All these people who try to get something for nothing think they're gaming the system. They are wrong and they are the people you can exploit.

Tricking or swindling somebody out of money is just being a grifter. Running a con, either a short con or a long con, is different.

Old school con men had nothing but scorn for swindlers who cheated old pensioners out of their money. They were in it for the game and playing the personalities like an orchestra.

I do have to say re: eating what you want, when I was younger (and therefore smaller and shorter than I am now) I loved the shit out of some salad. Like, wrote an ode to it in elementary school. Mom started a community garden in Shreveport, where there are vast food wastelands, and she said you couldn't get the kids to wash the veggies before they were scarfing them down. There's something affecting that and I don't know what it is.

ita, I think part of it is that not getting caught for the con depends on the mark doing or wanting something illegal or at least unsavory.

If my mother had been a better cook--ie, boil all vegetables till limp and fry the pork chops till leathery--I might be a better eater today. I got stuck in the Carlinesque "are you sure it's supposed to look like that?" distrust of food and have been too lazy to get out of it.

Not on the counter or with my gloves or mail. I fear it's lost...either on the bus or at my friend's place. I hate losing things, it makes me feel not in control of my life.

Ha! See, I think it's my mother's dislike of cooking that helped me love raw veggies so much.

Aw, Oldest Poodle in the World! Go for it, Lulu. And amyth, there's probably not a better place to have a panic attack than in the doctor's office, although during a pap probably isn't ideal. Yay for meds!

My mom was pretty much a heat-up-a-can veggie cook. So it's been interesting to try the raw thing as I've gotten older. There's so much more to taste, for one. And most of it really good.

My maternal grandmother was a cook for various work camps during the Depression and the war, so I don't think the level of cookery was expected to be very high. Though Mother made kick-ass fudge.

Oh, dude on the train, none of us want to listen go you tell your girlfriend about how much sex you want to be having with her, or hear you moan about how you could work off those excess eleven pounds that way.

Ha ha ha! What is wrong with people??