The Joke

Ed told it to Carol, who frowned but later chuckled and passed it on to Helen and Lara and Lara, well you know Lara, she forgot it five minutes later but Helen thought it was hilarious so she emailed it to 12 other people, thoughtfully crediting Ed as the origin, and all 12 emailed it to at least two others and in one case 34 others some of whom are inside the company and others who are way on the outside, including one reporter who sniffed and thought it highly inappropriate and maybe a story but nonetheless bounced it to five friends who roared and one hidden rival who tucked it away for a bright day when it might be useful as evidence of instability or insensitivity or one of those other "ins" but the others pretty much thought it was fine and by the time the week was over Ed's wit had reached at least a couple of thousand but by then Ed was having second thoughts so he called Carol and told her not to mention it and she said sure, she wouldn't say another word.