I can always count on Zay Smith to brighten my day

If you must watch the State of the Union tonight, here is some assistance from the Chicago Sun-Times Quick Takes today:

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If politician's mouth is open


QT News You Can Use (State of the Union, Democratic Response and Subsequent TV Spin Interviews Edition):

Touching the nose, touching the face and ears, slurring or stammering, leaning forward, swallowing, lip licking, inappropriate smiling, pauses filled with such words as "uh" and "er," increased slips of the tongue and grammatical errors, an averted gaze, throat clearing, increased verbal qualifiers such as "generally" and "actually," expansion of contractions into full phrases such as "didn't" into "did not," emphasis of statements with such words as ""honestly" and "as far as I know," decreased finger pointing, decreased hand gestures in general, tightened lips, shrugging, increased handling of such objects as eyeglasses or papers, decreased blinking, crossed arms, closing the hands into fists and increased sighing and audible breaths are 23 ways, according to researchers, to tell if someone is lying.