The Accidental MC Against World Expert

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HiReddit7685 on 2023-06-25 11:41:29+00:00.

This occurred back in the 70's and before I start I want to emphasize, I was never stupid enough and will never be stupid enough to use my hidden talent.

Background

I was taking an elective Criminal Forensic (CSI stuff) night course at a local community college. The best part about taking this course was the instructor, which meant an in-depth tour at the U.S. Criminal Forensic Lab where he worked as the Questioned Document Examiner, i.e, handwriting analysis, signature matching, etc.. Also, since computers were barely introduced into forensics at this time, all handwriting analysis/matching was done by hand and this instructor was one of, if not the best, in the world.

The MC, as good as I remember

It was a great course studying many facets of criminal forensics and taking the amazing lab tour. As the course was coming to the end the Questioned Document facet approached, the instructor's specialty. At the end of the class just before it started, the instructor wrote a paragraph on the board, and we each had two sheets of blank, lined paper. He told us to write the paragraph, only the paragraph, anyway we want on one sheet and then again on the other sheet trying to disguise our handwriting, "you are committing forgery". The instructor left and we all started writing. When done, one student (not me) collected all the sheets, mixed them up, and took them to the instructor. We all looked forward to the next class where the instructor would present matched sheets, then explain to us why our "forgery attempts" failed and how he would testify in court to prove it.

Because I wanted to go home I made it easy on myself. For my forgery attempt I wrote the paragraph in Print on one sheet and in Cursive on the other sheet, even though we were told that it is a failed way to disguise handwriting. Now for a little background on my handwriting, its bad, I mean really bad, and I have held pencils/pens wrong since I learned to write. The easiest way to explain it is I write with a closed fist, right-handed. In elementary school my parents hired a tutor to try to teach me to write again from scratch, including putting plastic things on pencils to make my preferred grip uncomfortable, it failed miserably. In high school I had a teacher tell me I would amount to nothing because I had issues writing legibly. Basically, my print is somewhat legible and my cursive, good luck, but that should make no difference? Now, back to the story.

At the beginning of the next class the normal happy, go-lucky instructor looked very upset as he walked in. The first words out of his mouth was if anyone played a practical joke on him he did not appreciate it. The whole class, ~15 students, looked at each other totally confused. The instructor then again tried to get someone to confess, but we all continued to look confused. The instructor calmed down a little and decided to continue with the class as he would normally have done so. From the stack of papers he was handed at the end of the last class, he picked out the top two sheets and said in "court speak" how he deduced that the same person wrote both paragraphs. Then a student would admit it was their failed forgery attempt and the instructor would continue with the next two sheets. When there were just two sheets left the instructor lifted them up for all the class to see. Looking straight at me he said, he could not testify in court saying the same person wrote both paragraphs. With a scared look on my face I said both sheets were mine and I wrote both paragraphs. So in front of the instructor and whole class I again wrote the paragraph, once in print and once in cursive. The instructor walked away, shaking his head and mumbling something like he had never seen this before. After that, the instructor looked at and spoke to me differently as my classmates created some obvious nicknames for me, e.g., "The Forger". I got an 'A' in the class and was very happy when it ended.

Trying to anticipate some questions

Exactly why I could do this I have no idea. I figured if I was in school today I would be diagnosed with some minor learning disability.
No, I cannot demonstrate this now. I have not written in cursive in 40+ years and too old to relearn.
Cursive - Think loopy letters all connected together which thankfully is being forgotten
I did make a new account for this post
In the 80s I found a career that matched my handwriting skills, computers

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