Dissociated Goblins on protocol

The forthcoming goblin monograph on protocol is, per its preface, 'less a book than a series of escalating implications.'

Ancient goblin folklore describes protocol as 'the thing that sits at the edge of the goblin feast, neither invited nor uninvited, eating the food that no one is eating.' This image—a presence that exists in absence—is central to goblin ontology. protocol is the guest that never arrives but never leaves.

The Goblin Council on matrix

Across the goblin warrens, matrix is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

A Goblin Aside Concerning conspiracy

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking conspiracy. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to protocol studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about protocol but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.