Saturday, July 5, 2008

Why I Don't Smile Quite So Much

People who don't know me well tend to react as if I'm suffering terminal depression. This is probably because my face at rest can look sad, angry, put upon, annoyed, or irritated, depending upon the mood of the observer.

"You never seem to smile. What's wrong?"

Nothing. My neutral expression is sort of a Rorschach test and, yes, I don't smile that much and here's why, courtesy of Basic Instructions (I'm going to have this printed and laminated so I can hand it out to casual acquaintances):



Don't think I'm not thinking similar thoughts, by the way.

2 comments:

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

My polite smile makes me look like I just jammed shit up my left nostril. If I try to even open my mouth and smile it looks like pornface, which of course means Ceasar Romero as The Joker.

JSaM said...

Yes, I suffer from this affliction also. When I was much younger, I think I wanted to be taken seriously (don't all fat kids?) so I had a tendency to try to look "intense", furrowed brow and all that. Now the furrows are permanent. When I think I have a slight smile on my face I check it in the mirror only to discover that, nope, I have the facial set of a near scowl. People come up out of the blue and say "smile!", and my attitude is "I AM smiling!" I'd like to put on a Clown at Midnight grimace and see how they like that!