The Penguin

Eastern Milksnake ( Lampropeltis triangulatum ) from Wikipedia When I was younger - much younger - I was always befuddled by tale-tellers. There was the classmate who claimed his dad could "Reverse time by blowing up watches". The fellow Boy Scout who told a younger troopmate, "When I was a baby the government switched my organs." And then, oh Lord, there were those fucking History Channel specials - "Are Aliens/Ghosts/Demons Real?" It wasn't that I didn't know the difference between reality and fantasy; it was simply the earnestness with which these stories were conveyed. How could anyone be so convinced of something that wasn't true? Reality, it turned out, was more porous than I wanted it to be. "Impressionable" is the polite word for my state of mind. I had to develop a strict Bullshit sense very early on to protect myself from being taken in. Even so, I avoided the Metaphysical section in the library, since those Time Life: Myste