Quasarman writes: FYI Gene, I remain gainfully employed by Greg and I have no clue as to the source of your uncontested rumor but thanks for making my phone ring about 700 times today. Unfortunately none of those calls was from you. Mike

Gene sez: Dear Quaze. I called you about 700 times today and each time your phone was busy. By the way, thank you for the validation that people actually read this shit. Now I can double the price of my banner ads. But, alas and alack, the “rumor” wasn’t mine. It was all the handiwork of those little stinkers at xxxporntalk.com. And here’s exactly how the story was presented on this site:

“The following was posted on www.xxxporntalk.com by someone named killttboy: ‘Quazze [Quasarman] was dumped by ZT yesterday because of zero sales. He was told to clear out his desk and get his stupid ass out by Friday. They’ve been hush hush on it, but this story was floating around the whiskey last night where someone who shall remain annymous was heard letting the cat out of the bag while getting plastered with zimas.’ ”

Gene adds: I figured the vowel-deficient use of the word ‘annymous’ might have been a tip off to some that the story lacked a certain intellectual authenticity.