Why am I not surprised?

I was checking my work email just the other day, and in a mass mailing, a professor included his blog at the end, with a link. Now if that isn't an invitation to spy, I don't know what is. So of course I went and looked. Nothing terribly mind-shattering, but some lovely photos of European sidestreets and some interesting stories too. Linked to this page was, however, another blog, and to that, yet another. All relatively tame (at least what I saw) but the truly amusing thing was that this particular man (well into his fifties) had significant identifying information, but on his profile claimed to be 37. I almost choked. What vanity? Why would someone misrepresent themselves in such a facile way, I wonder? Of course it may be to live out a fantasy of what it was like to be young, or to drum up the interest of some foolish young girl (or boy?) who might otherwise ignore his work, or be unwilling to share their own, on unjust grounds of ageism.

What is in a few years in the collective imagination? And if you are going to lie, why not go all the way and BE someone else? That answer is perhaps obvious, one's vanity does not permit one to go fully unrecognized, just in case possibility arises, a small dishonesty is easier to smooth over than a large one.

The good thing is, however, that I am ultimately reminded that we should all do more research before investing in lies, and when one enters into a pact, it should be done with full disclosure.