It's sometimes truth, sometimes half-truth, but if I say it with a salt-of-the-earth Brummie accent and a mile-wide grin, it usually works.
That was the case with Christian Dominguez, 7, whose broad grin is usually flanked by deep dimples, but who cried for the first two weeks he spent in Ms. Cortez's class, which he entered only days after arriving from Mexico.
And at that moment his face broke into the sort of grin that is usually seen when a 30-footer drops into the cup on the 18th green.
Once I tell them they might know me from the TV show "The Apprentice," people usually grin and tell me what I should have done to win.
But even the usually grinning Mr Edwards occasionally switched to the tough-guy talk more commonly found in Mr Bush's speeches.
Think of Angelina and Jen seesawing on the fulcrum of Brad, who, over the years, has appeared with one or the other, clubbing, attending award ceremonies, shopping, vacationing — usually grinning slightly or looking a little lost.
When I write a horrifying scene I'm never in a gloomy room doing a tortured, booze-addled Edgar Allan Poe impression, I'm usually grinning or even laughing out loud.
A few of our group did take a dunking, falling from the paddle raft and the single-person kayaks, but each swimmer got their feet pointed downstream and their life vests did their jobs – and they all got pulled back into the boats, thoroughly drenched, but usually grinning.
Can you believe it's only been three months since the usually grinning star gave birth?
The CRS is a highly respected, independent agency that prepares reports for members of Congress and routinely issues findings that disappoint or even irritate their clients, who usually just grin and bear it, or at least bear it.
