Knucklehead,

Actually, it reminds me of a paragraph in The Gulag Archipelego where Solzenitzn talks about intellectuals undergoing interrogation. How they think they can outsmart the interrogator, and are always trying to be clever and invent good stories, and end up tied in knots. His advice was to stonewall, pick something simple and stick with it.

It always amazes me that smart folks think that they are somehow skilled at deception, as if it were an automatic side benefit of braininess. Learning to be a good liar takes time, I expect, and coolness. No amount of cleverness will do the trick without experience, especially if one is feeling panicky.