Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Liar, liar, pants on fire!! What a wonderful descriptive taunt.

I have a theory that all of human behavior and interaction was experienced and described on the school playground in elementary school. We saw it all. We knew what to call it. It was clear, cogent and unvarnished. As time passed that clarity was obfuscated with layers of nuance and social convention.

Sometimes kids would fib in class. Fibs happen when kids want to seem more important than they really are. Kids would fib about something they did or fib about how important their Dad was. The fib was for the purpose of gaining status. Fib is not as harsh as the word, lie. But, a fib is a lie just the same. Hillary wanted to be more important. She wanted people to think she was battle tested. She had dodged sniper fire and worn a flak jacket. By implication, she was then ready on Day One to lead the class into battle. But, it was a fib. It was a lie.

During recess, we would all chase Hillary around the school yard yelling "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" We would chase her until we all ran out of breath. We would chase her until she cowered at the side of teacher for protection or fell in a lump and pleaded for us to stop. We would chase her relentlessly, yelling and laughing, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"