A Gentlemen's Bet, but a Bet Nonetheless

We have a new custom that entered our home recently. It involves my birthday present from last summer - DVR. It has become tradition that whoever has the remote control at the time that a commercial comes on to hit pause at random times during the commercial to see who can get the funniest still photo of someone’s face. As we are very easily amused, this often brings on some riotous fits of laughing .

Not long ago on a Sunday afternoon, we were sitting at the dinner table having a snack while watching a Planet Earth episode on Netflix. Randomly hitting pause during a nature show is not nearly as hilarious as it may be while watching an Old Spice commercial or that cute little talking baby, but we still do it.

At this particular time, my 10 year old, Tyler, was in charge of the remote. He stopped the frame on a dusk mountain scene, with the reflection from a placid lake in the foreground and a cloudscape in the background. Tyler commented that it looked like the mountains were tilted sideways in the picture, or more likely that the camera was tilted sideways at the time of the still frame. I took a different approach to viewing the picture - I said that it looked like the scene was upright, but rather that the oblique cloud shape in the background was an optical illusion in depth, making it look like they were rising at an angle, and thus, skewing his perspective.

After some discussion, being one to never pass up an opportunity for a debate, Tyler casually asked me, “Wanna make a bet on it?”

I was intrigued by his proposition. I agreed to a friendly bet as to who was seeing the still frame correctly. He then stated, “Okay, I’ll advance it a few frames and we’ll see who’s right”.

As he was pressing the play button, he continued, “A gentlemen’s bet, but a bet nonetheless”. 

I won’t bore you with the details as to who won the bet. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is - when will he learn? He should know by now the three classic blunders: To never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in with a Sicilian when death is on the line, and only slightly less well-known is this - Never make a bet with your vindictive parent when tv-watching privileges are on the line.

Gentlemen’s bet, indeed. Gentlemen don’t bet.