Almost as soon as I began writing 90 Days, people started stopping by my temporary pod, wherever it might be, hesitating, then shooting a look around to see if anyone was watching. They’d give me a meaningful look, lower their voice to a breathy undertone, and ask, “So, what’s the big secret? When are you gonna drop the big bombshell?”

“What is the big bombshell?” I’d ask, hoping for a scoop so spectacular that it would land BzzAgent on the front page of Slate and earn me whatever the blog equivalent of the Pulitzer might be.

“You’re the one who’s supposed to know, Butman,” they’d say and scurry off.

When I told Jono I was writing a meaty post about agents he looked nervous all day, as if expecting the bombshell would finally explode right near him. But when it was posted, he read it and said, “That’s all ya got?” and flashed his woodchuck smile.

Last Friday, I got an anonymous tip about what sounded like it really might be a shocker. “Ask XX about YY,” said my source, ZZ, cryptically.

I immediately swung into investigative journalist mode and asked XX about YY. “How did you hear about this?” he yelped, as if I had stuck him with a finepoint rollerball. “I have my sources,” I said.

“Ask Balter,” he said, backing away from me, looking as if he wanted to dash down the stairs and flee into the sunset, even though it was early afternoon.

I sent Our Founder an email. “What’s all this about YY?” I wrote. Silence. A little later, XX stopped by. “This is much too serious to blog about,” he said. “So don’t. Just don’t.”

I don’t know if YY really amounts to a bombshell but, if it does, you’ll have to hear about it somewhere else. There are limits to transparency, after all. There’s no point in allowing me to drop a bombshell that will completely shatter the window. Not even Balter is that mischievous.

But the incident set me to wondering:

Why is it that some people are so eager to have a bombshell dropped? (After all, it may very likely land on or near them.)

Why do people automatically assume there even is a bombshell?

And, if there is, why should I be the guy to drop it?

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