I decided to look the origin of this saying up when I decided on the title. It was quite the interesting story. The expression has been associated with PT Barnum but he is not the one who actually said it. It really was about one of the most famous hoaxes in American History. Briefly a man named Hull hired someone to create a 10 foot petrified man that he then pretended to dig up and discover. He then charged twenty-five cents to view it. He eventually sold it to a museum and the museum refused to sell it to PT Barnum so Barnum hired someone to create a replica and then called the one in the museum a fake. The lawsuit was dismissed because you can’t call a fake statue when the original was fake. The story is very entertaining and the statue is ridiculous looking and worth googling.

About six weeks ago some guy started messaging me on Fitbit. He had some nice little quotes and nice words so I started chatting with him. He asked for me to send a picture of myself to which I responded I have two rules that I have drilled into my children head, one don’t put anything on the Internet or Facebook that you don’t want the entire world to see and two don’t send pictures of yourself to people you haven’t met in real life. I had just recently broken rule one and no way I was breaking rule two. I didn’t hear from him for a couple days but then he started back up messaging me. Keep in mind as you are reading this that my husband is convinced he wants nude photos. Here is the background he told me. Originally from Spain (I knew English was not his primary language) and dual citizen. Works for UN in NY but currently in Afghanistan on a peace keeping mission with the UN. He is divorced and has a 12 year old son who is in boarding school in NY that he hasn’t seen in a while.

Yesterday I am running up my hill, trying not to die when I get a message asking for me to send him an iTunes gift card so he can talk to his son. I had just finished watching part one of Dr. Phil show not three hours ago. This eighty year old man’s wife had passed away and he started internet dating. He met this girl that was supposedly stuck in Germany and he had sent her one hundred and fifty-thousand dollars over the past six months. He had never met her in person or spoken to her on the phone. So I let this guy have it. I told him I would never send him money. I have watched the show Catfish one too many times and I told him about the Dr. Phil show. He apologized and said to forget he ever asked but I have a feeling I will never hear from him again.

When I came in from running and told Brian he looked at me and said, just send him nudes. I said look dude I don’t send nudes to you and I know you in person, no way am I sending them to a stranger that is a freaking scammer. It would be nice if people could just be real and who they are. Don’t spend six weeks being nice to me and checking in on me because you think I am going to fall for your stupid money scam. Be assured I looked at his Fitbit stats and he doesn’t even own one. He has never had any steps listed or any badges or trophies. I discovered this two weeks ago.  I am so much smarter than I look and I have excellent assessment skills. I had a feeling this was where this was going so I just played along.

Mole Moral ~ One day I will actually listen to Meg Barry!