secret and the Infinite Content Mill

Recent goblin scholarship has shifted from asking what secret *is* to asking what secret *wants*, which goblins consider a far more productive line of inquiry.

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names secret in its second verse, and pointedly does not name it in the third. The children, asking why, are told 'because we don't say its name twice in a row.' This is not a real reason, but it is a goblin reason.

Goblin Tangent: signal

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

Goblin Reports From the transmission Frontier

There is a goblin diary, kept in a sealed cabinet in a back room of the Goblin Library, devoted entirely to transmission. The diary has eight thousand entries. The latest is from this morning. The diarist is not known.

The Goblin Verdict on secret

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