  The off-centered "bar" of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is commonly
assumed, for simplicity's sake, to lie in the same plane as the LMC disk.
Relaxing this assumption to the extent allowed by the observations, we can
drastically change our interpretation of the microlensing events towards the
LMC. We propose that the off-centered ``bar'' in the Large Magellanic Cloud is
a foreground object slightly misaligned with, and offset from, the plane of the
LMC disk. The small displacement and misalignment are consequences of recent
tidal interactions with the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Galaxy. This
proposal, though radical, is consistent with the kinematics of the LMC and
near-infrared star count maps from the DENIS and 2MASS surveys. It does not
violate any of the observational limits on the depth and structure of the LMC
-- in particular, the reported 25 to 50 degree inclination range of the LMC and
the east-west gradient of distance moduli of standard candles. Contributions to
LMC microlensing come from the mutual lensing of stars in the disk and the
``bar'', as well as self-lensing of the disk and the ``bar''. The microlensing
optical depth of such configurations from self-lensing alone is comparable to
the observed microlensing signal reported by the EROS and MACHO groups.
Possible observations are suggested to discriminate between our misaligned,
offset ``bar'' model and the conventional picture of an off-centered, planar
bar.
