Questions.

"Are you angry?"

This question was posed to me earlier today and after much thought, I realised that just about any answer given will affirm the question asked. There are three main ways this question can be answered.

1. Yes.
A simple "yes" would clearly indicate that you are angry.

2. No.
Depending on the tone, "no" can mean what women mean when they respond with "nothing" when asked what's wrong, or a genuine denial of the question. Considering the typical contexts where this question is asked, a genuine denial is not likely.

3. *no response*
Not responding either indicates feigned ignorance, or a deliberate refusal to speak to the asker. Both scenarios indicate inherent anger. Assuming that the person being asked thinks that it's a silly question and doesn't wish to give away her true state of mind by speaking aloud because she's aware of the reverse psychology that might occur when she says "no", and assuming that the asker is a dimwit that keeps repeating his question until he evokes a response; even if she wasn't angry, she now is.

There is another way to respond to a question like that, and that was how I chose to answer it. You return the question and ask as innocuously as possible, "Why should I be angry?" This gives you a bit of time to contemplate whether you wish to (a) reveal your anger or (b) continue seething in silence yet maintain a flawless facade.

It would be safe to assume that any circumstance that warrants a question like "are you angry?" would probably mean that the person IS angry, which makes the question a redundant and useless one that would probably only exacerbate said anger. Some questions are meant to clarify, some are meant to assess, and some are meant to provoke. Occasionally (I've been having problems spelling "occasionally" ever since I graduated from school. Damn.) Some questions do all three, like the question "do I look fat?" Tough luck, eh.

*******

New favourite food: Da Paolo's tiramisu!!! The tiramisu at the ice cream store comes a close second... but it's only imitation tiramisu so it can never measure up to the real thing. I like my tiramisu loaded with coffee liqueur and smooshy ladyfingers. I think the Dao Paolo tiramisu could do with a little more liqueur though. Or maybe I've just been spoilt by the alcoholic ice creams in the store... *drools*

P.S. I spent an unnecessary digression searching for an emoticon that depicts drooling, and somehow got to TEDTalks where poet Rives tells a story through emoticons.

In a similar manner, I have developed an interest in the Holocaust, the Chernobyl disaster, skeletal differences by race, and orthodontics. Weird, huh.