Billy Bullshit
For our honeymoon (many years ago now) we went on a cruise, and sat at a large dinner table every evening. We made instant friends with everybody, and had a fantastic time. I bumped into one of the people from the table late one night – the owner of a company in his mid 50s I guess – and we had a drink together. What he told me has always stayed with me.“You're a lot more clever than you let on”“What do you mean?”“When we are talking about things at dinner, you dip into and out of the conversation – you seem to know something about most things – probably more than the rest of us put together”“Oh I don't think so!” (I started laughing)“But that's the thing – the rest haven't figured out how much you know, and you let them carry on talking without correcting them when you know they're wrong. That's a talent, that is.“I laughed. We both laughed. We both knew we were really talking about a retired policeman that sat on our table – we affectionately nicknamed him “Billy Bullshit” from that point on.