Many Happy Returns

I have a coworker named Joe. Joe is one of those types of people who pretends to be over the top and crazy all the time to hide the fact that, underneath the disguise, he is actually and truly over the top and crazy.

It's intensely satisfying to work in the cubicle next to Joe because he is prone to animated fits of emotion, usually joy or terror, and on rare occasions, joy and terror combined. One of these occurred yesterday.

Yesterday, I related the plot of one of my favorite episodes of the old series The Prisoner to him, and just as I was getting to the part where I reveal the episode's huge twist ending and Number Six finds himself dazed and confused and right back where he started, Joe figured it out.

Joe has never seen The Prisoner. Never watched an episode, didn't know what the series was about, yet he faithfully dictated to me the episode's outcome. Events and dialogue, down to the smallest detail.

Let's just get the record straight here: Joe is so crazy, the twists and turns in The Prisoner come as second nature to him.

We were both incredibly delighted to discover this fact.