What annoys me is that if someone just came to me and said "hey, I have three other papers due, and I'm having trouble getting this one done; can I have an extra day?" I would say yes, probably. But when they lie, I get less and less sympathetic, and it makes _everyone_ seem less credible, which is really unfortunate. What if someone genuinely DID have a death in the family - all these invented ones mean that someone might get less sympathy for a real family emergency!