On an early morning commuter ferry the other day a friend of mine leaned over to me and whispered "I've got a really good piece of gossip about someone."



"Oh yeah?" I said.



"Yeah. But I can't tell you what it is becasue he probably has a really good piece of gossip about me."



I laughed. He went on. "Don't you find that this island is kind of poised on the edge a little? Everyone has piece of gossip about everyone else. If one person were to spill the beans, the whole place would probably come unstuck."



I laughed again. "Yep," I said. "I think it's like that old Cold War doctrine of mutually assured destruction. It's what keeps us together as a community."



He smiled and sat back in his seat.