When I was a boy some adults were joking about the answer to a question. One said, “Oh, I would tell you the truth three or four different ways before I would like to you.” Some people actually do that, even until this day.
A classic example is the Great International Horse Race that took placing during the Cold War. There were only two entries: an American horse and a Soviet horse. The American horse won. Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist party in the U.S.S.R. reported the results this way: “The Soviet horse came in second. The American horse was next to last.”