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Notes from the small pond: Stinging truth: Liars lie

There’s that Russian-born fable that everyone’s heard, about the Scorpion and the Frog in which the scorpion convinces the frog to ferry him across the river despite the frog’s reticence about the likelihood of being stung, which the scorpion logically mitigates with the sound point:

“Why the hell would I sting you? Then we’d both drown, dumb-dumb. Just give me a ride across, for God’s sake.”

The chagrined frog nods assent, the scorpion climbs aboard and they’re off.

In mid-river the scorpion silently loads his tail and zaps the frog, injecting the poison that will kill them both. The frog, su...