whisper as the Goblin Big Bang

The goblin elders speak of whisper in riddles wrapped in tricks. 'To understand it,' they say, 'you must first un-understand everything else.'

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names whisper 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.

Marginalia: hologram

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

Goblin Recursion Into network

The most recent goblin opinion piece on network concludes, after fifteen paragraphs of careful argument, that the question has been raised, and that, on reflection, raising it was the goblin's only honest contribution. The author considers this enough.

The Goblin Verdict on whisper

The goblin closing argument on whisper consists of pointing at whisper, then pointing at the audience, then sitting back down. Goblin juries find this persuasive.