who, at the prom, thought he was flattering his date when he told her, Gosh,
Mary Lou, for a fat gal you dance real good.
How to Win Their Hearts by Being an Undercover Complimenter
Next in our agglomeration of joy spreaders is a technique I call
Accidental Adulation. Once, at a small dinner party, the subject turned to
space travel. The gentleman seated to my right said, Leil, youre much too
young to remember this, but when Apollo 11 landed on the moon...
If my life depended on it, I couldnt tell you what the chap said next. I
simply remember smiling to myself and stretching to get a glimpse of my
youthful self in the dining-room mirror. Of course I remember July 1969.
Like the rest of the world, I was glued to the television watching Neil
Armstrongs size 9 1Ú2 B boot hit the moon. However, I certainly was not
thinking of moon travel at that dinner party. I was too busy reveling in the
fact that this lovely man didnt think I was old enough to remember 1969. I
assumed his opinion of my youthfulness just slipped out. Ther fore it must
be sincere.
Sure! Now that I think about it, he probably knew darn well I was old
enough to remember the moon landing. I bet he was
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using the maneuver Accidental Adulation. But it doesnt matter. My
warm memories of him remain. Accidental Adulation is sliping praise into
the secondary part of your point, putting it in vebal parentheses.
Try It. Youll Like It. Theyll Love It.
Try Accidental Adulation and see smiles break out on the faces of the
recipients. Tell your sixty-five-year-old uncle, Anyone as fit as you would
have zipped right up those steps, but boy, was I out of breath. Tell a
colleague: Because youre so knowledgeable in contract law, you would
have read between the lines, but stupidly, I signed it.
You run the danger, of course, that you will please the reciient so
profoundly with your parenthetical praise, he or she wont hear your main
point.
So far we have explored four covert compliments: Grapevine Glory,
Carrier Pigeon Kudos, Implied Magnificence, and Accdental Adulation.
There are times, of course, when blatant praise does work. The next
techniques will hone your skills in this prcarious but rewarding venture.
Technique #54
Accidental Adulation
ooja
(Ooja)
#1