Unfiltered Story #32806
In university, I sign up for an outing to an open-air museum. We get a guided tour of the place, which includes a herbal garden. The guide tells us about the uses for various plants, and comes to belladonna, or deadly nightshade.
Guide: “During the Renaissance, women used to use eyedrops with belladonna in it to dilate their pupils. Having large, dark pupils was considered beautiful back then.”
Classmate #1: “Oh, like (My name)’s eyes!”
Me: “Huh?”
Classmate #1: “You have really large pupils.”
Me: “I do?” (First time anybody’s told me this)
Classmate #2: “Yeah, you have huge pupils. When I first met you, I thought you were on drugs. But then I got to know you better and noticed your pupils are just always that large.”
Me: “Thanks very much. I assure you, I’m not on drugs.”
Classmate #3 (jokingly): “Sure (My name).”
Several people, including the guide, wanted to take a closer look at my eyes, and they all concluded I had unusually large pupils. Luckily, they did believe me when I said I wasn’t on drugs, due to my reputation as a straight arrow. But they did make jokes about my “belladonna-eyes” for some time after that.
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