Sunday, July 13, 2014

Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!

     I had a fine selection of comments on my last post. I posted about painting my fence and suggested that you could volunteer to help. Now the excuses really came on thick and heavy. The end of it was that I was not going to get any help. Most excuses were highly creative.  Now Bob and Bob my neighbors only do oral comments and I will hear from them when I see them.

     I referred to Mark Twain's story Tom Sawyer and the Fence. Now as it turns out Tom Sawyer was a master a making excuses. Tom Sawyer was painting the fence because of an excuse.

      One day Aunt Polly was missing some of he jam. She picked on Tom as a likely suspect but Tom wriggled out of it and sneaked away. Aunt Polly was more worried that Tom would skip school. (Which he did.) So this excuse worked for Tom. 

     Tom went downtown and got into a terrible fight and his clothes were ripped and dirty. This really caught Aunt Polly's attention so Tom was assigned to paint the fence on a  Saturday morning when he really wanted to be downtown. So by getting people to paint the fence, the job was done quickly and Tom was able to go down town after all.

     So you see Tom was a master at making excuses. Some excuses worked and some didn't.

     Now I know all of you can make excuses. What are some excuses that worked? What excuses failed? What excuses backfired? What excuse worked over and over again. What excuses never worked?

37 comments:

  1. I would have helped you paint the fence. I like painting.
    Cheri

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    1. Well, thank you! I don't mind painting but the preparation is a bit much.

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  2. the best excuse i gave for having to leave work early one time was that the sheriff's posse was coming to pick up a stray bull that had gotten into our pasture and was wrecking our fences. it was the truth, though. :)

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    1. Well, it sounds like a lot of bull but I'll believe you!

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  3. When I was growing up I often used my sister as the perpetrator of everything I actually did myself. I was great at making excuses, too. :-)

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    1. I think little brothers and sisters sometimes get a bad rap from older siblings.

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  4. The best excuses are the truth. In my case I forgot or I couldn't be bothered covers most situations.

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  5. No excused in our house of eight. My sister used to always have to go to bathroom when we were doing dishes, My Mom noticed how she always slipped away and left me to do all dishes - then Mama pounced and said she could do the dishes for a month all by herself and if she had to go to bathroom, the dishes would wait. I got a month off for good behavior. ha,ha Red, great post :)

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    1. The bathroom scheme is a very often used excuse.

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  6. I get out of cell range often, so have made this a good one.

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  7. Busy, busy... Most people will just make the excuse of being too busy. I guess that includes me! LOL...

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  8. Excuses..lets see...I am usually pretty direct and just say "NO"..but if I had to make an excuse it would be "IT's too cold to go out" Which is the truth in the wintertime:)

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    1. Not very many people used the direct no. I guess it leaves you open to why and a whole lot more haggling.

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  9. I don't know if you have heard of the phrase 'I have to see a man about a dog', it's quite a common joke over here, but I actually used that as an excuse to get out of cutting someones hedge once, as I had found a stray dog, and just been phoned by it's owner. I had to take it back, and so quite justifiably told the customer 'Sorry, I have to see a man about a dog'.

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    1. That was very apropos. I have heard the man to see about a dog here. It's not common.

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  10. When someone asks you to do something you don't want to do all you have to say is that you have a crippling case of diarrhea. People will always leave you alone.

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    1. It would scare me off. My daughter and her husband speak French. In Chicago when someone is going to ask for money they switch into loud French. The beggar just goes by.

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  11. The meeting ended late and I spent the last hour of the day walking around the cherry blossoms instead of catching the train and heading back to the office. It worked.

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    1. Sometimes with trains you don't have to make an excuse.

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  12. Hmmm - I can't think of any creative excuses. My usual one is just too busy.

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  13. Red, do you have a favourite (excuse)? Do you consider lame excuses as simple lies or half-truths?

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    1. I'm a terrible forgetter. Or as Mark Twain said , " Lies and damn lies." At least I think Twain said it.

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  14. My Dad used to say he was going to see a man about a dog. That was when I was about 5 when I can first remember him using it. That was 65 years ago.

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    1. It's still used. I've heard it here but not often.

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  15. I recently painted all the trim on our back porch. My husband pointed out that I had missed painting the end of the last board. My excuse was, "if you had worked in this hot sun today, you would have missed a board too"!

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    1. When we've worked hard and done our best it's hard when somebody points out a flaw.

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  16. Excuses are a waste of time. Just say "yes" or "no".
    I think most people can fathom out an excuse. Anyhow excuses are only made between people who know each other. I don't think anyone would stand on a street corner
    and ask any "Tom, Dick or Harry" to help paint a fence etc.
    Anyhow I had the Pacific Ocean in the way - swimming is up my ally, but avoiding Great White Sharks, and the slightly smaller shark "killer" members is not, eg; Tigers and Blue Pointers, well they swim faster and they don't take prisoners.
    Cheers
    Colin (Brisbane.Australia)
    PS: At last some welcome rain here overnight in Brisbane, hopefully will stick around and green the area
    up.

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  17. Saying yes or no leaves you open to haggling. You end up having to defend yourself and that's when the excuses are used.

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    1. Never! Yes is yes and no is no!

      Storms appearing - maybe good if not severe.
      We do need rain BADLY - and that doesn't come under the excuse banner. Let is come down, Huey!
      Colin (Brisbane.Australia)

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  18. The dog ate my paintbrush.

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  19. Only you could come up with this one! Good one!

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  20. "Mommy I am sick and do not want to go to school"! Unfortunately that one didn't work very often though :)

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  21. I love the homework excuses I used to hear from my kids. I cannot remember them, but they were funny.

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