So we're in a meeting today, six of us in a room and another handful of people on the telephone. And H. is getting discursive on us, telling a story about a presentation he saw with a great case study that would just illustrate the point we're trying to make. "And the speaker--I think his name was Al Green!" he says, and then rushes on.

Across the table, expressions of disbelief flicker across faces. I'm afraid to look at the person next to me, so I try looking astonished out the window. Finally J. can't take it any more. "Al Green?" she repeats, sounding amazed.

Almost at once, everyone on the phone bursts out laughing. J. stops writing on the flip chart. Someone else in the room is snapping their fingers and about to burst into song.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if the guy's name isn't really something like "Hal Green" but this makes the better story, doesn't it? Sha-la-la-la.

The real Al has got his own site, of course, here.

(Of course, the joke will really be on me tomorrow when I'm trying to figure out who the heck we were actually talking about in this conversation.)