We should have known when they were in our offices, to interview us or explain something or to test our mood and puzzle out our apprehensions. Every moment they were not addressing us or each other they faced their laptops to tip-tap away, God knows why. No one can conceivably have that much work to do with their digits, unless they're a novelist, video game coder or court stenographer. No one on a business trip for Christ's sake. It seemed to me a means of keeping the world at bay, of managing one's tidy corner of it safe and sound. But then when the deal went down I realized.

They're e-mailing all the time.

E-mails to and fro, to the to line and to the cc's. Thoughts? Fire away. Loop someone in why don't you. Give an action item to Bob. Take the lead. Drop the ball and circle back.

This frenzy at first glance seems to take the place of real work in a most ridiculous charade. But then maybe not. Maybe the micro-forces it exerts finally make the world go round.