Chris12 wrote:xtc wrote:Who was it said: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story?
probably a very corrupt news reporter

Truer than you know. But, let's face it, any true story is always better for a litttle emboidery.
As a folklorist, the best story-tellers always have a certain "style" that one has to take with a pinch of salt. But it is a priviledge to listen to the "old boys" and revel in their delight in their triumphs and laugh at their admitted defeats. Now these guys (& Guyesses!) are genuine story-tellers. One of my best informants could only write in capital letters (He also saw my collaborator and me off on first contact thinking we wre Jehova's Witneses. Returning with the wife produced a different outcome.) I don't ask if their accounts are 100% accurate, but I regret the loss of the aural transmission of stories. I regret it not because the stories are traditional, they are usually not.
The presentation of the narrator as hero/victim is what matters. The style of his/her naration is what draws one in (or repells one). The truth of the story is totally irrelevant!
(And in the cae of the wonderful Ernie, probably libelous and personally incriminating.)