[Hobbsicle] How to Make a Good Impression

[Hobbsicle]

For a few days, people older than me complimented me on losing weight, though I had not, and people younger than me thought I was rich, though I was working minimum wage. Why?

[Doriana]

Is the word "pound" relevant?

Relevant how old you are? If so, are you in your teens? 20s? 30s? 40s? 50s? 60s? older than that?

Did the older people think so because of something you said? something you did? something you wore? something you wrote?
Did the younger people think so because of something you said? something you did? something you wore? something you wrote?

[RedWine]

Is your occupation relevant? Did they think so because of your outfit? Because of an item of yours? Did they make assumptions basing on what they'd seen? On what they'd heard? Were the assumptions made by people older and younger than you in general? By some specific older people? By some specific younger people?

[Hobbsicle]

Doriana:

Is the word "pound" relevant? No, but I like the thinking there

Relevant how old you are? If so, are you in your teens? 20s? 30s? 40s? 50s? 60s? older than that? This was in the past, but I was in my teens

Did the older people think so because of something you said? something you did? A little bit of this something you wore? Mostly this something you wrote? No to others
Did the younger people think so because of something you said? something you did? A little bit of this something you wore? Mostly this something you wrote?

RedWine

Is your occupation relevant? My occupation at the time, yes Did they think so because of your outfit? Yes Because of an item of yours? No Did they make assumptions basing on what they'd seen? Yope, the two groups thought somewhat differently On what they'd heard? Not as much Were the assumptions made by people older and younger than you in general? By some specific older people? By some specific younger people? There is a small FA, but generally, yes, not everyone I came in contact with had these impressions, but many people in general did

[Doriana]

Did you wear loose-fitting clothing? If so, because you wanted to? because you had to?
Was your job evident from what you wore? Uniforms relevant? Did you work in a job that required you to wear a uniform?
Did you work in fast food? retail? a hospital? transportation? construction? security?
People younger than you = children? younger teens?

[Hobbsicle]

Did you wear loose-fitting clothing? No If so, because you wanted to? because you had to? But what I wore was mostly due to this
Was your job evident from what you wore? Yes-ish Uniforms relevant? No
Did you work in a job that required you to wear a uniform? Yes, actually, but...
Did you work in fast food? retail? a hospital? transportation? construction? security? None of these
People younger than you = children? yes younger teens? no

[Doriana]

Did you not wear a uniform? Did you wear something that resembled the required uniform? Did you start the job not wearing the uniform, but then get one later on?

Was your job not evident for children? Did children think you had a different, better paying job based on what you were wearing?

Was your job in customer service? hospitality? cleaning? tourism? entertainment? childcare? delivery? the arts?

[Hobbsicle]

Did you not wear a uniform? Normally I would, but for the period of time relevant to the puzzle, no Did you wear something that resembled the required uniform? No
Did you start the job not wearing the uniform, but then get one later on? No

Was your job not evident for children? No, it was not evident for children
Did children think you had a different, Yes better paying Although no-ish to this part job based on what you were wearing? But otherwise, yes

Was your job in customer service? hospitality? cleaning? tourism? entertainment? childcare? delivery? the arts? Attractions/tourism, though my position varied a little bit between retail, customer service, that sort of thing, or whatever they came up with at the time.

[Doriana]

Did you work at a theme park?

[RedWine]

Did you wear a costume? Did the children think that you were a fairy tale character? A royalty?

[Hobbsicle]

Doriana

Did you work at a theme park? Not exactly, but since this detail isn't really all that important to the puzzle, I'll say that I worked at the Fort Worth Zoo. which is pretty large, and seems theme-park-ish at times.

RedWine

Did you wear a costume? Yes! Did the children think that you were a fairy tale character? No-ish A royalty? No

[kalira]

Were you dressed as some sort of animal? Presumably a "mascot" of some sort for the zoo? Was it an animal that is normally considered to be weightier? But with you wearing the costume it appeared thinner than people would think it would be (in the wild)? (i.e., were the people older than you joking that Hippo-Hobbsicle, for example, looked less weighty than a wild hippo?)

[Hobbsicle]

Were you dressed as some sort of animal? Presumably a "mascot" of some sort for the zoo? Was it an animal that is normally considered to be weightier? But with you wearing the costume it appeared thinner than people would think it would be (in the wild)? (i.e., were the people older than you joking that Hippo-Hobbsicle, for example, looked less weighty than a wild hippo?) This is all very much OTRT, and indeed the comments from older people were intended as jokes, but I was not dressed as an animal, nor zoo mascot

[kalira]

Is the person (or persons) who normally wears the costume relevant at all? Their size difference from you?

Was the costume a full on suit (e.g., Mickey Mouse type that covers the entire body and head)? or more of an outfit (e.g., Disney princesses, where they're mostly just wearing a specific dress and wig, etc)?

[Doriana]

Were you dressed as a super hero?

[Hobbsicle]

kalira

Is the person (or persons) who normally wears the costume relevant at all? Their size difference from you? Not particularly, though I imagine they were bigger, at least somewhat.

Was the costume a full on suit (e.g., Mickey Mouse type that covers the entire body and head)? or more of an outfit (e.g., Disney princesses, where they're mostly just wearing a specific dress and wig, etc)? Somewhere between the two, I think. I was almost entirely covered, but there were parts of my face and maybe forearms that could be seen

Doriana

Were you dressed as a super hero? No...although maybe in a sense...

[Doriana]

Were you dressed as a human character? some other creature?

[Hobbsicle]

Were you dressed as a human character? This some other creature?

[RedWine]

Did you wear the costume normally associated with profession? With emergency service? Did you carry relevant equipment?

[Hobbsicle]

Did you wear the costume normally associated with profession? No-ish...or just a very highly specific profession With emergency service? No Did you carry relevant equipment? No

[Grip]

Was your costume of a famous character? a character created specially for the zoo?

[Hobbsicle]

Was your costume of a famous character? Yes, very
a character created specially for the zoo? No

[Grip]

Famous human character - related to zoos? animals?

[Hobbsicle]

Famous human character - related to zoos? No animals? Not especially, though they may have figured a way to tie it in somehow that I don't remember

NOTE: The fact that it was at a zoo is basically tangential. It's just the place I happened to be, but not really all that relevant to the puzzle.

[GalFisk]

Famous character: fictional? Historical? Still living? Cartoon? Politician? Artist? Celebrity? Inventor? Rich person?

[Hobbsicle]

Famous character: fictional? Mostly this Historical? But loosely based on this Still living? The person it is based on is no longer living Cartoon? Not exclusively, but there have been many instances of this Politician? Artist? Celebrity? Inventor? No to these Rich person? Well, it appears that way, or at least the kids seem to have that underlying assumption

[GalFisk]

Is the character h? A? M? Anthropomorphic? A Disney character?

[Hobbsicle]

Is the character h? A? M? Yes to all. Anthropomorphic? No A Disney character? Not exclusively, but he is appeared in at least one (probably more)

[GalFisk]

A character from folklore? From urban legend? From mythology?

[Hobbsicle]

A character from folklore? It started this way, and may still be considered this, but I think it's grown beyond this definition
From urban legend? No
From mythology? I don't think it's considered this

[Grip]

Were you Paul Bunyan?

[Hobbsicle]

Were you Paul Bunyan? No, he's less famous than the person I was.

[kalira]

Robin Hood?

From European folklore? American folklore? Some other area's folklore?

[Hobbsicle]

Robin Hood? No

From European folklore? Started here American folklore? May have been added to somewhat here Some other area's folklore? And best I understand it, is pretty much global at this point.

[GalFisk]

Santa?

[Hobbsicle]

Santa? There it is!

**********SPOILER************

When I was a teenager, my first job was at the Fort Worth Zoo. For the most part, I sold trinkets in the gift shop, rented strollers and wheelchairs, that sort of thing.

But one magical Christmastime, during the holiday-themed festivities, they had a Santa Claus dressed up (I think they also had reindeer you could pet), and kids would sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. They had picked someone from the staff who seemed roughly the part, and dressed him up in a red suit and fake beard to sit in the probably-too-warm Texas December weather and field lines full of antsy children. That is, except for two or three days on a particular weekend where he was out of town. And who did they pick as his temporary replacement? Scrawny, acne-laden, fifteen-year-old me.

So for a few days, I got a lot of comments from parents to the effect of, "Wow, Santa's lost weight!" or, "I want whatever diet you're on, Santa!" I'm sure I was wearing some kind of padding to help offset my lack of size, but it didn't seem to help much. And, of course, kids seemed to think I was pretty rich, because they had no qualms asking me to give them all manner of new toys for no payment at all beyond some milk and a few cookies.

I'm still not sure why they thought I was their second-best choice, as there were plenty of people who worked there, but at least it made for one of those stories that is fun to tell. Even my dad couldn't resist coming up to the zoo to nearly crush my lap.

Thanks for playing!

[WiZ]

Missed it, but good puzzle! A very satisfying fulfillment of the puzzle question.